Bulgarian president calls for improvement of army readiness at Army Day parade

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev called here on Saturday at the Army Day parade for improvement of the Armed Forces of his country amid their systematic disparagement over recent decades

"In the consciousness of the Bulgarian people, our army has always been a symbol of statehood and courage," Radev said while addressing the parade, attended by country's Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Parliament Speaker Dimitar Glavchev, ambassadors, military veterans and hundreds of citizens.

Unfortunately, in recent decades the role and importance of country's armed forces have been systematically disparaged, Radev said.

Therefore, the Bulgarian army today is not only small in staff, but also a worryingly incomplete, with a low social status, lack of sufficient funds for effective combat preparation, and outdated and poorly maintained weapons, said Radev, who is also the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the country's Armed Forces.

The past 2016, when the Bulgarian Parliament adopted modernization and rearmament projects and guaranteed their funding, was a turning point in the attitude towards the armed forces, Radev said.

However, the acquisition of modern weapons was necessary, but not a sufficient condition for defense modernization, said Radev, who had been a professional jet fighter pilot from 1987 to 2016 when he retired from the army as the commander of the Bulgarian air force.

It was necessary to improve the system of normative documents, which has long been inadequate to the modern security environment, Radev said.

Furthermore, resources were needed to conduct comprehensive combat training, which would generate real capabilities meeting NATO standards, he said.

Meanwhile, people were the highest priority in the defense system, Radev said.

In this regard, strong measures were needed to stop the alarming outflow from the armed forces, elevate the social status of military and civilian personnel, and ensure normal conditions for professional development, Radev said.

"Without these measures, we can not have a decent and capable army, a guarantor of our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a reliable ally in NATO's collective defense system and in the common security and defense policy of the European Union," Radev said.

With the participation of some 1,200 soldiers, the parade was traditionally opened by a Mi-17 helicopter carrying the national flag escorted by two AS 532 Cougar helicopters, and closed by three MiG-29 fighter jets.

May 6 was officially pronounced as the Day of the Bulgarian Army in 1880, shortly after the country's liberation from Ottoman rule, and it has been marked as a national holiday since 1998. Endit