U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will be visiting Bulgaria as part of his trip to Europe this week which will focus on bolstering NATO allies as a war rages on its eastern borders in Ukraine, Reuters quoted the Pentagon on Monday.
Austin is scheduled to leave on Tuesday for Brussels, where he is to attend a NATO meeting before traveling to Slovakia, the Pentagon said.
In Bulgaria, Austin will meet military and civilian leaders, it said, without offering further details on his agenda.
Reuters recalls that Bulgaria, Moscow’s closest ally during the Cold War, is now a European Union and NATO member state that has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
