East Flank, Mattarella visits the Novo Selo base in Bulgaria: 720 soldiers under the NATO umbrella

The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, is on an official visit to the Republic of Bulgaria. Today with President Rumen Radev he went to the military base in Novo Selo. Here he met with the Italian contingent of Multinational Battlegroup Bulgaria. "We are on the eastern front of the Atlantic Alliance, placed in tension by Russia's unacceptable aggression against Ukraine, and so this mission has a deterrence task, to prevent and avoid incidents. So a mission that is aimed at peace in security. And so it is particularly relevant and I thank you very much,' the Head of State said. .

The one in Bulgaria is one of four multinational battle groups deployed by NATO as part of the 'enhanced Vigilance Activity' initiative aimed at increasing the Alliance's deterrence capability along the eastern European flank in response to Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The other three are in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. The four were added to the existing battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. In addition to the contingent in Bulgaria, Italy is present in the Battle Groups in Latvia and Hungary. The eight battle groups extend along the entire eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

From 17 October 2022, Italy will lead the Battle Group in Bulgaria, the one visited by President Mattarella today, as a framework nation. The base is in the Novo Selo training area. All operational and training activities conducted by the Italian Armed Forces on NATO's eastern flank are ordered by the Chief of Defence Staff and carried out under the coordination and according to the directives issued by the Inter-Forces Summit Operations Command (Covi). The Italian-led Battle Group counts 720 men and women from the Army, plus contributions from the USA, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

The deployment of Italian Army units on Bulgarian territory for the first time was made possible by the drawing up of specific technical, logistic and administrative agreements between the Allies and Bulgaria, the host nation. The training activities of the Multinational Battle Group Bulgaria are carried out jointly with existing NATO battle groups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia and extend along the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.