Bulgaria will allow a plane carrying Vladimir Putin to fly through its airspace to facilitate a planned meeting between the Russian leader and Donald Trump in Budapest later this month, the country’s foreign minister said on Monday.
“When efforts are made to achieve peace, if the condition for this is to have such a meeting, it is most logical that such a meeting should be mediated in [all] possible ways,” Georg Georgiev told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
“How is it proposed to hold the meeting if one of the participants cannot get to it?” he added.
No request has yet been made by Moscow to allow Putin’s aircraft to pass over the Black Sea nation, a Bulgarian official confirmed.
Bulgaria does not share a border with Hungary. However, Hungary and Bulgaria both border Serbia, which has strong historic links with Moscow. Passing through Bulgaria on his way to Budapest would cut Putin’s flight time considerably.
The only other route that does not involve flying over EU or Ukrainian airspace involves flying over the Mediterranean, and then passing over Montenegro or Albania before reaching Budapest via Serbia.
The summit, which was announced by Trump following a phone call with Putin last week and for which the date has not yet been fixed, has drawn a mixed reaction from EU leaders.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and many Eastern EU countries have criticised the scheduled meeting for excluding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But ministers from many Western EU member states, including the Netherlands, Germany, and France, have expressed tentative support for the meeting, which would be the first in-person summit between Trump and Putin since they met in Alaska in August.
Hungary’s right-wing leader, Viktor Orbán, has repeatedly criticised the EU’s support for Ukraine and has fostered strong ties with both Putin and Trump since resuming his country’s premiership in 2010.
Bulgaria and Hungary are currently both members of the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for his involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children during the war.
Hungary, however, announced its withdrawal from the ICC in April this year. Its withdrawal will become legally effective from June 2026.
(jp)
