Reuters Staff
DECEMBER 20, 2017 / 6:28 PM
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has had to temporarily halt a
pending 81.3 million levs ($49.3 million) deal to overhaul its jet fighters
with Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG because of an appeal by Ukrainian arms
company Ukrinmash, its defense minister said on Wednesday.
The suspension comes just over a week after the Balkan
country asked the Russian company to overhaul and maintain 15 of its ageing MiG
fighter jets and was about to sign a four-year deal with it, Krasimir
Karakachanov told reporters.
Karakachanov called the Ukrinmash appeal, filed with the
Bulgarian competition regulator, “a sabotage attempt” against the ministry’s
plans for a direct contract with the Russian company.
The Black Sea country, an EU and NATO member, considered
the MiG maker as the only company capable of providing reliable support for the
aircraft and did not invite other bidders for the deal.
”The Ukrainian company does not have a license, it does
not have capability to carry out such overhauls, he told a news conference.
“In practice, what it has done is an attempt for a
sabotage against the decision of the defense ministry to overhaul its aircraft
directly with a contract for direct negotiations with RAC MiG,” he told
reporters.
“We have yet to find out what the reasons are for the
move - whether there are some political motives or some economic motives of
those who were unpleasantly surprised by the defense ministry decision not to
work with intermediaries,” Karakachanov said.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia are at a low ebb
after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its backing for separatists in
eastern Ukraine.
The appeal has blocked the maintenance of the military
jets and because of the timing - at the end of the year - the ministry will
need three to four months before it can again secure funds from the state
budget for the overhaul, the ministry said in a statement.
Bulgaria says it needs to keep its Soviet-era aircraft
operational after plans to buy eight new fighter jets had hit another snag and
the process is expected to start almost from scratch sometime next year.
($1 = 1.6501 leva)
Reporting by Angel Krasimirov and Tsvetelia Tsolova,
Editing by Richard Balmforth
Original post: reuters.com
Related articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment