When disaster strikes, it is not tanks or fighter jets that first arrive on the scene — but firefighters, medics, and engineers. NATO, more typically associated with deterring military threats from hostile powers, will this autumn turn its attention to floods, earthquakes, and chemical spills as it convenes its 20th major emergency management exercise, “BULGARIA 2025.”
Taking place between 7th and 12th September 2025, the exercise will transform the host nation — the Republic of Bulgaria — into a sprawling simulation ground for one of the world’s most complex multinational emergency response operations. Announced jointly by NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Operations, Ms Burcu San, and Bulgaria’s Director General for Fire Safety and Civil Protection, Mr Aleksandar Dzhartov, this effort underscores the growing realisation in Brussels and beyond: the next crisis may not come from a missile, but from nature or negligence.
The event, orchestrated by NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) alongside Bulgaria’s Directorate General Fire Safety and Civil Protection (DG FSCP), is more than a dry run. It is a statement of intent, a reminder that NATO’s relevance in the 21st century must extend beyond Article 5 and into the murky waters of hybrid threats, climate-induced disasters, and the mass-mobilisation of civil infrastructure.
With participants expected from across the Alliance and partner nations — 14 countries are currently involved in planning — “BULGARIA 2025” will be a crucible of collaboration. A Core Planning Team of experts is already drafting scenarios designed to stretch the limits of participants’ abilities. NATO says the aim is to challenge every team, integrating national priorities and ensuring realism that might make even military planners wince.
Such exercises are no mere pageantry. They are the proving grounds of NATO’s ability to pivot between the battlefield and the floodplain. Past EADRCC operations have responded to real-world disasters — from wildfires in Greece to earthquakes in Albania. “BULGARIA 2025” will prepare emergency responders, civil authorities, and military personnel to function seamlessly in a crisis — regardless of whether the enemy is a hostile state or a collapsing dam.
The scale and ambition of this year’s exercise reflect a growing urgency in the Alliance’s broader strategic thinking. Civil-military cooperation, once a footnote in defence planning, is now central to the Alliance’s concept of resilience. The war in Ukraine has laid bare the dangers of underestimating infrastructure vulnerability — both to deliberate attack and to systemic failure.
Indeed, NATO’s own Strategic Concept, last updated in 2022, highlighted the necessity of protecting populations not just from bullets but from blackouts, biohazards, and breakdowns in governance. Exercises like “BULGARIA 2025” are how this doctrine is translated into practical capability.
One of the key objectives of the event will be to test interoperability — the ability of various national teams to work together under a common framework. In a real emergency, whether caused by a terrorist attack or an earthquake, no single nation can manage the consequences alone. NATO wants to ensure that a Romanian search-and-rescue team can hand off operations smoothly to a French chemical decontamination unit, while coordinating with a Bulgarian command centre.
Knowledge-sharing will also be high on the agenda. From drone-based reconnaissance to crowd evacuation strategies, each participant brings hard-won experience. The exercise will serve as a forum for cross-pollination of best practices and emerging technologies. The Lessons Identified Conference, slated for February 2026, will consolidate insights gleaned from the field, allowing future planning to benefit from the real-time stress testing of response protocols.
To critics who question NATO’s sprawling remit, “BULGARIA 2025” is an answer in action. Security, in 2025, is as much about sandbags and satellite phones as it is about soldiers. The threats facing the Euro-Atlantic community are no longer neatly divided between war and peace, foreign and domestic.
With Bulgaria stepping forward as host, the exercise also sends a clear message: frontline states are not just buffers; they are leaders. As pressure mounts from crises on NATO’s eastern and southern flanks — from migration flows to cyber-attacks — it is the capacity for cooperation that will determine the Alliance’s durability.
“BULGARIA 2025” may not make headlines in the same way as a major NATO summit, but its legacy could be far more enduring. When the next disaster strikes, it will be the partnerships forged and the lessons learned in exercises like this that spell the difference between chaos and control.
