2024-06-19 14:14:22
That is 10,000 lower than the variety of armed forces introduced by the Ministry of Protection
The Bulgarian military is left with solely 26,900 serving in it – 10,000 lower than the variety of armed forces introduced by the Ministry of Protection. That is proven by NATO knowledge on the protection prices of the alliance international locations within the interval 2014-2024. Nonetheless, within the present yr, the Bulgarian military has elevated by 1,400 folks in comparison with 2022 and 2023.
Our military is the sixteenth largest in NATO. The USA has 1,300 million folks, adopted by Turkey with 481,000 folks. And international locations like Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Belgium, and so forth. have smaller armies than Bulgaria. Within the final 10 years, our military has skilled a continuing scarcity of males, the locations within the reserve are additionally unfilled, which made President Rumen Radev and the Minister of Protection Atanas Zapryanov to speak concerning the introduction of obligatory army coaching for the youth.
With 2.18% of GDP allotted to protection, Bulgaria ranks among the many 23 prime NATO international locations that allocate greater than 2% of GDP. As a sum for this yr, this quantities to 2.3 billion {dollars}, or simply over 3.6 billion BGN. In absolute worth, Bulgaria’s army price range is in twenty second place out of 31 member states.
Nonetheless, we’re on the backside of the NATO international locations by way of expenditure per individual per yr. Solely Albanians, Montenegrins and North Macedonians spend much less. Every Bulgarian pays solely 218 {dollars}, or lower than BGN 400 per yr as bills for the nation’s army safety. For comparability, each Croatian provides 315 {dollars} a yr, and each Czech – 426 {dollars} a yr.