Bulgaria has asked the United States to place a permanent military force in the country aimed at strengthening security in the region and increasing their military cooperation, local media reports.
Bulgarian Defense Minister Anu Anguelov has
discussed the opening of a US
military base in Novo Selo, near Sliven,
with officials of the Pentagon in early December, reports Dneven Trud daily
newspaper citing sources in the Bulgarian military.
Nothing has yet been set in ink, but if the deal
is to go through, it could double the American troop numbers in the country,
according to the report.
If an agreement is reached, anti-war activist
Brian Becker, argues it would surrender Sofia’s power to the US government, as
troops pose “a threat to the national sovereignty of the people of Bulgaria
because they have foreign military bases, and it incorporates Bulgaria, makes
it more secure as part of an American political, economic as well as military
formation. You really can't be a free country and free people and have foreign
troops on your soil,” he told SW.
US
troops have been present in Bulgaria
for over six years under a Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by the both
states in April 2006. Under the arrangement, Americans are allowed to
train their troops at four Bulgarian bases, which remain under Sofia’s
command and under the Bulgarian flag.
However, the presence of the US forces in
Bulgaria is also an American “method” of securely “fastening the
country and its economy and its political leaders to Washington both in terms
of the incorporation of US military equipment, selling US military goods
abroad, which is a big business here”, Becker says.
Such a military buildup will also threaten Russia,
Becker added, as “there is a strong motive force to maintain the cold war
even without the Soviet Union and to
incorporate the countries of eastern and central Europe,
the former Warsaw
Pact countries into an American sphere of interest through the medium of NATO.”
The treaty also permits the US
to use the bases “for missions in third country without a specific
authorization from Bulgarian authorities.”
Only 2500 troops are present in Bulgaria
at the moment. They include armor, mechanized infantry and airborne infantry or
light infantry
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