Minister Crosetto, after his visits to Hungary and Romania, has traveled to Bulgaria to spend Christmas Eve with the Italian military stationed in that country. He also met with his Bulgarian counterpart Dimitar Stoyanov.
Minister Crosetto spent Christmas Eve with the national contingent leading the NATO Battle Group engaged in Enhanced Vigilance Activities in Bulgaria, at Novo Selo military base.
He attended Mass with them and shared their Christmas Eve lunch, presenting the grateful greetings of the Italian State and Italy as a whole for their valuable work. The latter is especially important at this time in history, since the area of engagement- NATO's Eastern Flank- is so close to the war of aggression waged against Ukraine. "You enjoy the respect and gratitude of the Fatherland", Minister Crosetto said in wishing Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the personnel.
“Let me thank and shake hands with every one of you. –he added- You will celebrate the festivities away from home to defend the interests of our country while defending peace with generosity, strength and sense of responsibility".
"As Ministry of Defence, we create opportunities to remember those who have made the last sacrifice for us, the Fallen, our veterans. But we also must, and have a strong desire to take this opportunity to thank those who represent our Country with their every-day activities, in Italy and abroad." , the Minister explained, underscoring the importance of the work done by the Armed Forces to build bridges between countries. Thus, Italy has gained respect and gratitude as it happened, for example, in Afghanistan, Lebann and Kosovo. “The sum of many single deeds benefits our country", the minister said, underscoring that the Italian military deployed on the Eastern flank testify to the presence of the EU and NATO in a territory at the border of a war that has been imposed on us for almost a year, and shows Italy's closeness to the Alliance that is countering Russia to defend Ukraine.
On the occasion of the last leg of his visit to the Italian contingents engaged abroad, Minister Crosetto met with the Bulgarian Defence Minister, Dimitar Stoyanov.
During the bilateral meeting the two ministers have agreed on the importance to strengthen bilater cooperation in the Defence sector and between the respective Armed Forces.
The discussion included the importance of the Black Sea area and the shared commitment for stability and security on NATO's eastern flank, where Italy is present with over 2,000 military, out of which 700 are deployed in Bulgaria since 17 October, when Italy assumed command of the Battle Group.
