Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov expressed on Friday support for Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev and blamed the previous governments for the state of the country's air force.

His comments come after a meeting with Nenchev on Thursday, whose resignation was demanded over the proposal of the defence ministry for legislative amendments which would allow for the country's airspace to be policed by joint missions of Bulgaria and its NATO allies.

Borisov criticised the previous governments for being idle for the past twenty years and according to him it was unfair to demand the resignation of the defence minister, daily Dnevnik quotes him as saying.

The Bulgarian prime minister blamed his political opponents for being inactive in the field and failing to renew the country's air force during their latest term in power last year.

Borisov also went further back in time to the government of the triple coalition (2005-2009) when annual budget surpluses of BGN 5-6 B had been reported.

He asked why these surpluses had not been spent on the renewal of the air force or the construction of motorways, water purification plants and hospitals as the current government was doing.

Borisov explained that he met with Nenchev in order to explain him the conversation he had had with the Commander of the Bulgarian Air Force, Major General Rumen Radev, earlier on Thursday.

Following his meeting with the prime minister, Radev withdrew the resignation he had earlier submitted on Thursday.

Borisov assured that the government has expressed support to the defence ministry on all topics.

He called on the governments, which have been in power in the past fifteen years, to make an assessment of their efforts in area.

As regards the proposal for legislative amendments which would allow for joint air policing missions, Borisov assured that he will always insist on Bulgarian fighter jets to have the leading role.

He made a commitment to strain the budget in order to find a solution to the problems of the air force.