“It is a pleasure for us to provide everything that is necessary in order have the new Techopark in Sofia built,” the Minister of Defense Anu Anguelov said today, 18 June 2012, while the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rossen Plevneliev, he, and the Minister of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Delyan Dobrev were on tour in the region of the Logistics brigade where it is envisioned for the Technological Park to be built.

The Ministry of Defense will provide against payment the Ministry of the Economy, Energy and Tourism with a building lot necessary for the technological part to be built.

In the course of the tour, the President Rossen Plevneliev thanked Miniser Anguelov for providing the building lot for this project, and the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Delyan Dobrev emphasized that the Ministry of Defense provides the land at a price much lower than the actual one- five million leva.

Minister Anguelov pointed out that the Ministry of Defense does its best in order to open up a possibility to build a stadium, and to this end one battalion of the Joint Forces Command will be moved to Gorna Banya area, however the western part of the lot will be preserved.

At a later stage, answering journalists’ questions, Minister Anguelov said that he had introduced a draft decision to the Council of Ministers, and this document suggests to the President of the Republic of Bulgaria to extend by two years the tour of duty of the Chief of Defense, General Simeon Simeonov.

The Chief of Defense General Simeon Simeonov departs today, 18 June 2012, for Zagreb, the Republic of Croatia. He will participate in the Annual NATO ACT Conference on the topic “NATO Chicago Summit outcomes and reviewing the concepts on the Alliance’s development”.

The Chiefs of Defense of the NATO member countries as well as experts in the sphere related to developing strategic conceptual documents will participate in the two-day forum.

The Chicago Summit outcomes, the concepts and processes through which the NATO member countries and the partner countries will be able to contribute to the Alliance’s transformation and development will be discussed at the Conference.

The Bulgarian-American joint training “Thracian Spring 2012”started today, 14 June 2012, and it will continue until 29 June 2012. The joint training is conducted in Plovdiv area, southern Bulgaria, and forces and materiel of the Ministry of Defense, the Bulgarian army, the Ministry of Interior, and the US Air Force in Europe, will take part in the drills.

From the American side, a number of transport Hercules C-130 aircraft and up to 150 servicemen, and from the Bulgarian side one transport C-27 J Spartan aircraft, one air defense missile division, a special unit of the Ministry of Interior, and up to 580 servicemen, 350 of whom from 68th Special Forces brigade of the Bulgarian Land Forces, will participate in the training.

During the drills, daylight and night training jumps and combat parachute jumps from Hercules C-130 aircraft and from C-27J Spartan aircraft will be performed. The Bulgarian and the American crews will conduct tactical low altitude flights, transport of troops and cargo, tactical air dropping and landing as well as different ways of delivering humanitarian assistance for population in distress.
Representatives of the European Defense Agency will participate as observers in the training.

The commander of the joint training is Colonel Yavor Mateev, Chief of Joint Facilities Department to the Ministry of Defense.

“The Sixth Balkan Countries CHODs Conference is of great importance for the military cooperation in the region because it once again emphasizes the good neighborly relations as well as the efforts of the countries towards enhancing security and stability in the region,” the Chief of Defence General Simeon Simeonov said in a briefing to journalist today, 13 June 2012.

Senior military officials who participated in the Forum expressed their high esteem to Bulgaria for hosting “Energy Flame 2012” multinational computer assisted exercise. It is the first of its kind in the sphere of energy security aimed at enhancing capabilities in responding to a regional crisis.

The Chief of Defence General Simeon Simeonov made an announcement that upon the invitation by Major General Khemal Gjunkshi the next conference will be held in Tirana, Albania, in 2013.

Within the framework of the Conference, seven national presentations were made by means of which the Chiefs of Defence delineated the possibility for joint employment of the national centers and training ranges for preparation of the contingents as well as for exchange of cadets in the military schools and academies.

In response to a question asked by a journalist, General Simeonov clarified that the Defence Staff bears no direct responsibility with respect to amounts of munitions stored in private depots.

The joint Bulgarian-Romanian one-day exercise BLUE BRIDGE 2012” was successfully accomplished with the participation of servicemen and materiel of the two countries’ Air Forces. The exercise was conducted on the basis of the Technical Agreement signed between the Ministries of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania.

The basic goal of the exercise was to achieve better coordination and interoperability between the Air Forces of the two countries in fulfilling trans-border Air Policing operations by maintaining air navigation command and control, and control of the radio provision.

The flights were conducted in the airspace of the two countries putting to tests and practicing elements related to joint execution of Air Policing procedures in cases of hijacked or suspicious aircraft which constitute a threat to strategic sites or to sites of particular importance which are situated near out common border.

The flights were conducted with MiG-21„Lancer” fighter aircraft by the Romanian Air Force, and on the Bulgarian side, with MiG-29 aircraft from Graf Ignatievo Air base and C-27J „Spartan”aircraft from Vrazhdebna Air Base.