Bulgaria holds border control drill near Macedonia

The ministers of interior and defense of Bulgaria and Macedonia on Friday near Zlatarevo checkpoint attended a Bulgarian exercise aimed at maintaining the readiness in case of increased migratory pressure.

According to the scenario of the drill codenamed Border 2016, Bulgarian policemen and troops jointly "repelled" the attempt of a group of "illegal immigrants" to enter into Bulgaria.

The fact that four ministers gathered on the Bulgarian-Macedonian border is a very important political signal to the peoples of the two countries and to the other European citizens that Bulgaria and Macedonia cooperate very well, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Rumiana Bachvarova told a joint press conference.

Currently there was no real threat and increase in migratory pressure, but the authorities did not want to neglect the risk of possible new routes, Bachvarova said.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev added that the two countries sought better coordination and interaction to solve the refugee crisis, and measures to strengthen the exchange of information related to migration crisis were identified.

His Macedonian counterpart Zoran Jolevski confirmed the need for bilateral cooperation and contacts, while Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski vowed that the two neighboring Balkan countries will increase the mutual border control in order to prevent the creation of a new corridor for illegal migrants. Endit