Exercise Bulgaria 2025 showcases civilian-military crisis management

MONTANA, Bulgaria -- NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre and the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior wrapped up Exercise Bulgaria 2025 here Sept. 12.

The exercise was one of the largest and most complex disaster response exercises in the world this year with soldiers, scientists and first responders working together following a simulated earthquake in this small mountain town tucked away in the northwest corner of Bulgaria not far from the borders of Romania and Serbia.

"Exercise Bulgaria 2025 provided a great opportunity for over 1,000 military and civilian emergency responders from 18 participating nations to train together, practicing civilian-military interoperability during a crisis management effort," said U.S. Army Col. Michael Firmin, director of the Education, Training and Evaluation Department at the NATO Joint Chemical, Biological and Radiological Defence Center of Excellence located in Vyskov, Czechia. "Exercises like this are an important component of maintaining national resilience, expanding each nation's ability to respond to requests from other nations within the alliance and to NATO partner nations."

The exercise highlighted the importance of the North Atlantic Treaty's Article 3 that requires member nations, separately and jointly, to maintain national preparedness in areas such as civil government, energy, food, communications, and transportation to ensure the alliance can fulfill its core tasks of deterrence and defense of every inch of allied territory.

"As the host nation, Bulgaria, along with NATO's European Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center, has done an expert job planning this exercise, showcasing their abilities to coordinate international disaster response operations," said Firmin.

Radmila Sekerinska, the deputy secretary general of NATO, spoke to the assembled participants on the opening day of the exercise Sept. 7.

She highlighted the alliance's core values, underscoring how working together is the very essence of NATO's purpose.

"I'm really happy to see so many of our neighbors, so many of the countries from the region building a better and safer future, many nations working together to meet a common challenge," said Sekerinska. "This is what NATO is all about.

"Some of you may be surprised to see soldiers, firefighters, medics, but also scientists, coders, engineers and innovators coming together under NATO's flag like this to prepare, not for war, but for disasters," she said. "Not to fight, but equally to save lives.

"Keeping our citizens safe has been the primary mission of our alliance for more than 70 years now."

This spirit of unity and collective security was exemplified by the extensive preparations undertaken by the host nation.

Bulgaria hosted the exercise including setting up all six training sites in and around the town of Montana and a base of operations at an airfield known as Erden Drop Zone.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Daniel Mitov opened the exercise with a speech on the importance of working together to protect the more than one billion citizens who fall under the security of the NATO umbrella.

His speech outlined three guiding principles for success, focusing on public resilience, collaboration among all stakeholders, and the need for sustainable, risk-informed investments.

"It is our duty to keep our people safe and secure, defend our territory, and safeguard our freedom and democracy," said Mitov. "Three points guide us.

"First, we need public resilience, an informed society that knows how to act in emergencies.

"Second, all relevant stakeholders, government, local authorities, private sector, academia and civil society need to trust each other and work together in order to meet common security interests.

"In Bulgaria, for instance, the emergency response system is based on all assets, and this implies a whole of society and a whole of government approach with close public-private cooperation and civil-military interaction.

"At the core, moreover, in difficult and challenging cases, when our capabilities are overwhelmed, we know that we are not alone and can rely on our allies and partners to lend a helping hand."

"I can assure you that in times of need you can count on us as well, because solidarity and unity matter.

"Last but not least, security and stability come at a cost.

"We need sustainable, risk-informed investments to meet future challenges and rising public expectations, fully in line with the outcome of the most recent NATO Summit, where allies reaffirmed their commitment to Euro-Atlantic security and to investing at least 5% of GDP (gross domestic product) in defense.

"Part of these investments can be science and innovation related, which will help us to deal with the wide range of challenges.

"In line with this, Bulgaria is already undertaking steps to foster the cooperation between start-up, small- and medium-sized enterprises, international companies, universities and the government in defense and internal security domains.

"Finally, Bulgaria stands firmly with NATO," he said.

The international solidarity and mutual support Mitov described is precisely what the exercise was designed to test and improve upon, which is the primary mission of the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC).

The EADRCC is NATO's principal civil emergency response mechanism available to all allies and partner nations and can support both preparedness and response to natural and human-made disasters and other emergencies.

The EADRCC is located at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and is staffed by a small team that can be augmented substantially in a crisis. The EADRCC also relies on expertise from member nations' civil experts, who can be called upon to provide advice in the event of a major disaster.

Since it was established in 1998, the EADRCC has been part of NATO's response to a wide range of incidents, including the Ebola epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, refugee flows to allied and partner countries, the ongoing crisis on NATO's eastern flank, and major natural disasters including hurricanes, forest fires, floods and earthquakes.

Exercise Bulgaria 2025 was the 20th civil emergency response exercise hosted by the EADRCC.