- How do you see the prospects of military-to-military ties between Russia and Bulgaria?

     - The legal base for exchanges between our defense establishments is provided by the 1992 Agreement on Bilateral Military Cooperation, which covers defense trade, defense research, the schooling and training of uniformed personnel, military-to-civilian community ties, cultural links, vacation-share programs, and other matters. Under this agreement, numerous plans and protocols are annually signed, formal visits are exchanged and concrete cooperative tasks are finalized.
     Our bilateral ties have been especially promoted by the defense minister of the Republic of Bulgaria officially visiting Moscow in 1993 and 1995 and by chief of the general staff of the Bulgarian army visiting Russia in 1993, as well as by secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces and first deputy defense minister of Russia visiting Sofia in 1994, 1993 and 1996 respectively.

     - Defense trade is one of the key areas of Russian-Bulgarian cooperation in the military sector. How do you see the current state of and prospects for collaborative links between military-industrial complexes of the two nations, including such endeavors as jointly run research, development and other kind of projects?

     - Our state and military leadership highly appreciate our Russian partners' willingness to extend gratuitous military assistance to the Bulgarian army. We received the aid package in summer 1996 when we were experiencing the most complex and trying times owing primarily to the extremely acute economic crisis.
     For Bulgaria, it is particularly critical that deliveries of Russian weapon systems and defense equipment be maintained. In this connection, it should be underscored that we are also focusing on Russian deliveries of aircraft parts for the Bulgarian air force, which partially clear Russia's debts to Bulgaria. We are applying the same strategy to reduce our indebtedness to Russia as we seek to provide Russia with MTLB prime movers and relevant parts in exchange for the parts and components needed to keep in service our Russian-made armor and other combat materiel.
     Of special importance is the education and training of our servicemen at Russian military schools and academies. Current arrangements on academic programs for contingents of Bulgaria's military officers have yet to satisfy the Bulgarian army's needs. The issue of schooling and training support service personnel for the armed forces and specialists for defense industries still needs to be resolved.
     Considerable progress has been made in the manufacture and sale of specialized products on a collaborative basis. The newly-devised bilateral effort, launched in 1992, led to the establishment of a joint commission on cooperation in specialized products, which has since gathered annually to address and decide on teamwork research, the production and marketing of project drafts.
     Analysis of bilateral defense-related scientific, engineering and economic ties has revealed that existing research, development and industrial capacities of either country have not yet been fully engaged for various reasons.
     As an example, joint research and development projects have rarely been transformed into badly needed military hardware prototypes owing to the dearth of funding for jointly-conducted R&D projects, the unavailability of a single framework to maintain teamwork EMD bodies, actual termination of programs enabling our personnel to receive education in the Russian Federation, inefficient know-how and exchange regulatory procedures, as well as other stumbling blocks.
     Our defense establishments still fail to move in a synchronized fashion as they introduce European and world engineering standards and quality assurance strategies to cover both military and commercial lines. The lack of legislation on honoring each other's certification policies is also having an adverse impact.
     As exceptions are few and far between, links with Russian military equipment manufacturing and repair facilities have effectively been halted. As a result, some of our defense enterprises have been compelled to drastically cut production, immobilizing their entire business operations. Concurrently, our industrial facilities have been left with huge stockpiles of materials and supplies that are acutely needed on the Russian market.
     Admittedly, the sides are seen to poorly performing in repairs and preventive maintenance procedures pertaining to Russian-made armaments and military equipment operated by the Bulgarian army. Large Russian defense equipment vendors have increasingly been overriding our humble requests for parts and service support. What is worse, they would hike their pricing scales and charges, placing under a heavy strain our efforts to arrange preventive maintenance and repair of in-service hardware. Unfortunately, an efficient vehicle to govern the creation of Bulgarian-Russian joint ventures and launching of co-production lines is yet to be established. Our direct transportation links remain largely impeded.
     To date, issues relating to elimination of double taxation and lifting of duties and tariffs on mutual deliveries of weapons, equipment, spares, supplies and other military and specialized items destined for Bulgaria's and Russia's MoDs remain unresolved. Russia's stringent customs and taxation regimes on the import of weapon systems and military equipment (Bulgarian-made hardware being no exception) make our exports undercompetitive and actually prohibitive for the exporter to make and the user to purchase. This factor heavily shrinks our external market, curbs reinvestments in the development and growth of industrial projects, and severely impacts our capacity to acquire Russian-made weapons, equipment and purpose-built parts and tools.
     The ministry of defense is hopeful that, despite the daunting problems to be resolved, cooperative links between our armed forces will continue to evolve in the spirit of long-held traditions of mutual understanding, trust and empathy. We have all the prerequisites in place to consolidate and diversify our ties.

     - The Military Parade magazine has turned three years old, with Issue No. 19 coming out this December. We would appreciate if you would share your thoughts on the magazine's content and layout.

     - In the first place, thank you for your attention. I would like to extend my best wishes to the magazine's entire staff for their superior professionalism, unbiased perspectives and ability to make the materials so graphic and fascinating. May you always be successful, resourceful and renowned both domestically and internationally!