Bulgaria Will Leave Warsaw Pact, President Declares

Bulgaria will join Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary in leaving the Warsaw Pact, which is obsolete, Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev said in an interview that was released Friday.

Zhelev, who granted the interview to the Czechoslovak news agency CTK in advance of his visit here next week, said the main task facing his country in the foreign policy area is integration into the European political and economic structure and ensuring its security under the new conditions.

“The Warsaw Pact has outlived its time, and Bulgaria will leave it, together with Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary,” Zhelev said.

In Prague, Foreign Minister Jiri Dienstbier warned Friday that the four nations will go ahead with the process of dissolving the Warsaw Pact’s military structures if the Soviet Union refuses to call a meeting this month of the pact’s senior body, the Political Consultative Committee. The committee agreed last year to dissolve the pact’s military network by July 1.

Zhelev said that, although elections in Bulgaria were won by the former Communist Party, the fundamental elements of a democratic system became a reality in the political sphere.

“Unfortunately, Bulgaria’s economic situation is disastrous, much more difficult than in Czechoslovakia, and therefore the troubles the Bulgarian people are experiencing are much greater,” Zhelev said.

He said prospects are good for cooperation between the two nations but suggested that there will be problems with hard-currency payments in bilateral trade during the transition to a market economy.