President Rumen Radev Thursday refused to lead the Bulgarian delegation at the upcoming NATO summit due to disagreement with positions of the country's government.
SOFIA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Thursday refused to participate in the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit and to lead the Bulgarian delegation there due to disagreement with positions of the country's government.
Bulgaria's Council of Ministers approved on Wednesday the framework positions of the country for the NATO summit, which will take place on July 9-11 in Washington.
Radev was proposed to lead the Bulgarian delegation, to present the already adopted framework positions and, based on them, "to approve and/or confirm" the documents presented at the NATO summit.
Dimitar Glavchev, the country's caretaker prime minister and foreign minister, was included in the Bulgarian delegation to the event.
"I do not accept some provisions of the framework positions adopted by the Council of Ministers concerning the commitments that our country is making" respecting the conflict in Ukraine, Radev said in a statement.
"In this regard, I do not accept the government's proposal to lead the Bulgarian delegation and participation in the Heads of State and Government summit in Washington," Radev said.
After Radev's statement, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said the government had invited the President to lead the delegation in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Head of State, and the decision to accept or decide to lead the delegation was a personal decision of the President. ■
