Foreign relations and military

Bulgaria became a member of the United Nations in 1955 and since 1966 has been a non-permanent member of the Security Council three times, most recently from 2002 to 2003. Bulgaria was also among the founding nations of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 1975. It joined NATO on 29 March 2004, signed the European Union Treaty of Accession on 25 April 2005, and became a full member of the European Union on 1 January 2007. Euro-Atlantic integration became a priority for the country since the fall of Communism, although the Communist leadership also had aspirations of leaving the Warsaw Pact and joining the European Communities by 1987. Bulgaria's relationship with its neighbours since 1990 has generally been good. The country also plays an important role in promoting regional security. Bulgaria has an active tripartite economic and diplomatic collaboration with Romania and Greece, maintains strong relations with EU members, the United States and Russia, and continues to improve its traditionally good ties with China and Vietnam. The HIV trial in Libya, which followed after the imprisonment of several Bulgarian nurses in Benghazi in 1998, had a significant impact on relations between Bulgaria, the European Union, and Libya. It resulted in the release of the nurses by Muammar Gaddafi's government, which was granted a contract to receive a nuclear reactor and weapons supplies from France in exchange.

Bulgaria hosted six KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft and 200 support personnel for the war effort in Afghanistan in 2001, which was the first stationing of foreign forces on its territory since World War II. International military relations were further expanded in April 2006, when Bulgaria and the United States signed a defence cooperation agreement providing for the usage of Bezmer and Graf Ignatievo air bases, the Novo Selo training range, and a logistics centre in Aytos as joint military training facilities. The same year Foreign Policy magazine listed Bezmer Air Base as one of the six most important overseas facilities used by the USAF due to its proximity to the Middle East. A total of 756 troops are deployed abroad as part of various UN and NATO missions. Historically, Bulgaria deployed significant numbers of military and civilian advisors in Soviet-allied countries, such as Nicaragua and Libya (more than 9,000 personnel).

Domestic defence is the responsibility of the all-volunteer military of Bulgaria, consisting of land forces, navy and air force. The land forces comprise of two mechanised brigades and eight independent regiments and battalions; the air force operates 106 aircraft and air defence systems in six air bases, and the navy operates a variety of ships, helicopters and coastal defence measures. Following a series of reductions beginning in 1990, the number of active troops contracted from 152,000 in 1988 to about 32,000 in the 2000s, supplemented by a reserve force of 302,500 soldiers and officers and 34,000 paramilitary servicemen. The inventory is mostly of Soviet origin, such as MiG-29 fighters, SA-10 Grumble SAMs and SS-21 Scarab short-range ballistic missiles. By 2020 the government will spend $1.4 billion for the deployment of new fighter jets, communications systems and cyber warfare capabilities. Total military spending in 2009 cost $819 million.

Science and technology

Bulgaria has one of Europe's lowest scientific research budgets at 0.25 per cent of GDP in 2010. Chronic underinvestment in the sector since 1990 forced many scientific professionals to leave the country. As a result, Bulgaria scores low in terms of innovation, competitiveness and high-value added exports.

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is the leading scientific institution and employs most Bulgarian researchers in its numerous branches. Principal areas of research and development are energy, nanotechnology, archaeology and medicine. Bulgaria became the 6th country in the world to have an astronaut in space with Georgi Ivanov's flight on Soyuz 33 in 1979. It has deployed its own experiments on various missions, such as RADOM-7 dosimeters on the International Space Station and Chandrayaan-1, and space greenhouses (a Bulgarian development) on the Mir space station. In 1999, Bulgaria joined CERN and in 2011 the government announced plans to reboot the space programme by producing a new microsatellite and joining the European Space Agency. In the 1980s Bulgaria became known as the "Silicon Valley of the Eastern Bloc" due to its large-scale computing technology exports to COMECON states. The country ranked third in the world in 2011 by total number of ICT specialists, outperforming countries with far larger populations, and operates the only supercomputer in the Balkan region, an IBM Blue Gene/P at the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications.

Infrastructure

Although it has relatively few reserves of fossil fuels, Bulgaria's well-developed energy sector and strategic geographic location make it a key European energy centre. Nearly 34 per cent of its electricity is produced by the nuclear power station at Kozloduy[198] and public opinion strongly supports nuclear energy development. The rapid expansion of alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power stations make Bulgaria one of the fastest-growing wind energy producers in the world. The country aims to produce 16 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.

The national road network has a total length of 40,231 kilometres (24,998 mi), of which 39,587 kilometres (24,598 mi) are paved, but nearly half fall into the lowest international rating for paved roads. Railroads are a major mode of freight transportation, although highways carry a progressively larger share of freight. Bulgaria has 6,238 kilometres (3,876 mi) of railway track and currently a total of 81 km of high-speed lines are in operation and a further 380 km are under construction with expected completion in 2013. Rail links are available with Romania, Greece and Serbia, and express trains serve direct routes to Kiev, Minsk, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Sofia and Plovdiv are the country's air travel hubs, while Varna and Burgas are the principal maritime trade ports. Varna is also scheduled to be the first station on EU territory to receive natural gas through the South Stream pipeline.

The telecommunications network is generally antiquated and requires substantial modernisation. Telephone service is available in most villages, and a central digital trunk line connects most regions. Currently there are three active mobile phone operators—Mtel, GLOBUL and Vivacom. The number of Internet users has increased rapidly since 2000—from 430,000 their number grew to 1.55 million in 2004, and 3.4 million (48 per cent penetration rate) in 2010. Bulgaria has the third-fastest average Broadband Internet speed in the world after South Korea and Romania with an average speed of 1,611 KBps.

Smailova Gulnur

Model OON

Bulgaria