SOFIA – Bulgaria has exceeded its plan to increase military spending and no new increase to the level of 5% demanded by US President Donald Trump is expected in the near future, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said on Monday.
“A significant number of NATO countries do not reach 2% defence spending, so it is still too early to talk about a new increase. With the purchase of the F-16, Bulgaria reached 3% of GDP (for defence), so Bulgaria has exceeded the EU goals,” Prime Minister Zhelyazkov said. He was attending a meeting of the leaders of the EU, the UK and the NATO secretary general on Monday.
Bulgaria only reached 3% of GDP for defence in 2019, when it paid the US $1.2 billion in one go for eight new F-16 fighter jets. Two years later, the authorities in Sofia bought another eight jets for the same price, but the payments were staggered.
In 2024, Bulgaria’s military budget will be about 2.2% of GDP, or about $2.4 billion.
Bulgaria is expected to reach 2.5% of defence spending in the next three years due to large deals for the purchase of new military equipment. Over the past six years, Sofia has signed deals for more than $3 billion worth of American military equipment, preferring US fighter jets and armoured vehicles to their European counterparts.
Bulgaria is in the midst of a decades-long process of modernising its army, which still relies on outdated Soviet weapons systems. So far, only its German competitors have made a breakthrough in the arms deals dominated by US companies.
In 2020, Lürssen won the contract to build two combat frigates for the Bulgarian navy, but with a Bulgarian contractor, and in 2024 a German IRIS-T SLM air defence system was ordered for €180 million.
In early 2025, the new Bulgarian government, dominated by former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party, announced that it would work to reduce the budget deficit to 3% of GDP. This makes it impossible to significantly increase the military budget this year.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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