Bulgaria's navy has taken delivery of the first of its new mine hunters. The former Belgian ship Bellis is now called Briz and will be based at the Burgas naval base, the navy headquarters in Varna said.

The Bulgarian naval flag was raised on the ship at a ceremony at the naval base in Zeebrugge, Belgium. The ship previously carried the hull number M916.

Belgium's national armaments director, Lt Gen Bernard Falleg, and Bulgarian navy commander Rear Adm Kiril Mihaylov signed the handover document.

Guests included Belgian navy commander Rear Adm Tanguy Botman, ambassador Natalia Uzunova and Nikolay Milkov, Bulgaria's ambassador to NATO, as well as admirals, generals and officers.

Briz will join the Flotilla of Combat and Auxiliary Ships. On the way to Burgas, Captain (first rank) Yordan Yordanov, who commands a division of the flotilla, will be the senior national representative on board.

The ship belongs to the Tripartite class. The navy is to get seven mine hunters in all, four Belgian and three Dutch, and Briz is the first. The rest will arrive in the coming years. The purchase falls under a memorandum of understanding between Bulgaria, Belgium and the Netherlands, signed in July this year.

The navy says the Tripartite-class mine hunters will raise Bulgaria's contribution to NATO's defence capability on the alliance's eastern flank.

The defence ministry said minister Dimitar Stoyanov had signed a note earlier the same day for Bulgaria to join a NATO initiative to develop ways to counter low-flying air threats.