Bulgaria is leaving Intersputnik – the International Organization for Space Communications, established during the USSR and the CMEA. This was decided by the government in Sofia during its meeting last Wednesday.
Intersputnik, established in 1971 in Moscow, has 25 members – mainly from the former socialist camp, including five current EU members: Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, along with Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, Syria, Yemen, Tajikistan, etc.
Bulgaria is leaving the organization founded by the USSR only recently, despite the fact that in 2022, shortly after invading Ukraine, the successor to the Soviet Union, Russia, declared the country “hostile”.
“The government will propose to the National Assembly to denounce the agreement on Bulgaria’s accession, which was ratified in 1972,” the press service of the Council of Ministers reported. The reason for this decision is that “there is a lack of transparency and guarantees that the organization’s satellite fleet, which is of a commercial nature, is not used against the interests of member states,” the press release states.
Established as an international non-profit organization, Intersputnik today actually operates as a consortium, as an international company. It owns a network of 18 satellites in low-Earth orbit, which can serve a large part of the territory of South America, the Far East, Asia and Africa. About 40 transponders with a capacity of 36 MHz each are used for the territory of Europe, the Intersputnik website states.
Illustrative Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/yellow-flag-on-boat-256379/
