Raykov: The agreement with Ukraine is declarative, but Bulgaria supports the European position

The agreement with Ukraine is more of a political declaration and was adopted by the Council of Ministers in 2024, said the acting Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Marin Raykov in the studio.

Marin Raykov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: "In material terms, this agreement does not contain any specific commitments. It does not contain any digital specifications, either financially or materially. This is an agreement that expresses Bulgaria's support for Ukraine. It is perfectly clear to everyone who the aggressor is and who the victim is in this conflict. Our position is entirely within the framework of the position of all our European partners. There is no option for Bulgaria to be in parentheses of the European consensus on this issue."

Regarding the note sent by the Iranian side, Raykov was adamant that our diplomatic department does not have a practice of publishing the texts of such documents, unless it is a message that is directly related to the problems of war and peace or puts Bulgaria on the map of a conflict.

Marin Raykov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: "But in this particular case, we are not talking about this at all. We are talking about an expressed position, indeed harsh, on the part of Iran on issues that are extremely important to them, being involved in military actions. We are not. Bulgaria, I said it clearly, is not at war. NATO is not at war. The planes that are at the "Vasil Levski" airport are part of the forward deployment of NATO. And with a certain irony, I can say that the fact that we have received a note is not a reason to leave NATO."

Marin Raykov added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not want this type of current correspondence to be used in a pre-election period, for any speculation or for the spread of rumors and exploitation of the fear of a part of Bulgarian society. He reiterated that Bulgaria has a clear position regarding Iran and Tehran is aware of it.

Marin Raykov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: "It is more than obvious that the behavior of the regime is highly problematic for us in several key points. First, it was repeatedly stated that the Iranian nuclear program should be ended. It was made clear that the production of ballistic missiles should also be stopped. The strikes that Iran is inflicting in the region on its neighbors are absolutely unacceptable to us, categorically."

This was also the position expressed by the acting Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynski during the video conference, at which a solution to the problem of opening the Strait of Hormuz was being sought.

Regarding the recent statements by the Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickovski, that he will not allow for decades the conditions to be met that could open the negotiations for his country's membership in the EU, namely - a change in the Constitution and a constitutional guarantee for the rights of Bulgarians, Raykov explained that obviously certain circles in Skopje are more inclined to waste more time on Macedonian citizens.

According to Raykov, the problem with the non-fulfillment of the requirements by our western neighbor is not bilateral:

Marin Raykov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: "The fact is that their Minister of Foreign Affairs goes from office to office in Brussels and complains about the European Union, about Bulgaria, about various things. We do not want to enter such a scheme, in which we enter after him, because we do not want this issue to be perceived as bilateral. To claim that there is a bilateral problem between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia is extremely manipulative. The problem is rather between Skopje and the EU. And the non-fulfillment of the requirements."