US embassy cable - 05SOFIA1033

S E C R E T  SOFIA 001033 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NOFORN 
 
STATE FOR NP, PM 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2015 
TAGS: ETTC, BU 
SUBJECT: CLASSIFIED BULGARIAN ARMS EXPORT REPORT REVEALS 
SALES TO SENSITIVE AREAS 
 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR JAMES PARDEW, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
1. (S/NF) SUMMARY: In a classified government report passed 
to us by a reputable NGO, the GOB summarizes the amounts and 
locations of all authorized Bulgarian arms exports for the 
period 2002-2003. The report has not been officially released 
yet and remains secret even though EU regulations require 
Bulgaria to make this information public.  According to GOB 
export control officials, the report was completed a year 
ago, but the Bulgarian Council of Ministers has continually 
postponed its publication. The report states that as late as 
2003 Bulgaria was authorizing substantial arms sales to 
sensitive countries like China, Guinea, Uganda, Yemen, 
Azerbaijan Algeria, Rwanda, Togo and Cote d'Ivoire. END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2. (S/NF) While the GOB has made important strides in arms 
export controls in the past four years by improving its 
regulatory framework and joining several international 
nonproliferation regimes, this report shows that arms 
manufacturers continue to successfully push for sales to 
sensitive areas.  The report discloses 894,000 EUR in 
military exports to China during 2003. GOB contacts have told 
us that the items sold to China were artillery-launched radio 
jammers and not lethal military equipment. Other sensitive 
sales include large unspecified arms exports to Yemen, Congo, 
Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea. The latter being well known as a 
transit zone for weapons going into U.S. and UN embargoed 
Liberia. 
 
3. (S/NF) The GOB authorized 90 million EUR in arms exports 
in 2002 and 72 million EUR in 2003. Exports to India and 
Algeria amounted to 75 percent of sales in both years.  Most 
of these weapons sales, 55 percent, were for ammunition of 
various types; 26 percent were for weapons with a caliber of 
12.7mm or smaller; and 11 percent were for bombs, torpedoes, 
shells and rockets. The report given to us includes only the 
summary, so no exact weapons systems details are given. 
 
4. (S/NF) 2003 Bulgarian Weapons Exports 
(top ten export areas - amounts in EUR) 
India        25,466,491 
Algeria      21,436,733 
Russia        5,322,558 
Cote d'Ivoire 4,660,573 
USA           1,382,158 
Afghanistan   1,329,869 
Georgia       1,282,955 
Poland        1,119,679 
Iraq          1,024,262 
China           893,661 
 
5. (S/NF) 2002 Bulgarian Weapons Exports 
(top ten export areas - amounts in EUR) 
India         44,128,732 
Algeria       16,129,857 
USA            5,980,086 
Cote d'Ivoire  5,216,873 
Jordan         3,609,334 
Yemen          2,798,856 
Macedonia      1,538,697 
Congo          1,464,657 
Guinea         1,456,938 
Azerbaijan     1,010,042 
 
6. (S/NF)  The report was passed to us by Philip Gounev from 
the Sofia-based NGO "Center for the Study of Democracy" 
(CSD). CSD is a well-respected and established NGO and Gounev 
is one of their top arms control researchers.  Gounev told us 
he originally received the report from Zoya Dimitrova, a 
locally prominent journalist who specializes in arms trade 
 
 
investigations. We are convinced of the accuracy of the 
report, and it corresponds with other information received 
through intel channels. 
 
7. (S/NF) COMMENT: Bulgaria has made impressive strides to 
improve the legal structure of its export controls, however 
the political and economic pressures to authorize arms sales 
to its traditional clients in Africa and the Middle East 
remain. The reluctance of the GOB to publicly release this 
report indicates the lack of political will to make this 
traditionally shady part of the Bulgarian economy transparent 
once and for all. It also highlights the tension between 
Bulgaria's political commitment to international arms control 
regimes and the economic pressures to allow arms sales to 
sensitive countries in the developing world. 
 
8. (S/NF) A more detailed list of countries Bulgaria exported 
arms to in 2002-2003 is available from Poloff Leon Lowder, 
email: LowderLC@state.sgov.gov.