March 30 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's defence ministry said on Friday it has signed a four-year framework agreement for the maintenance of MiG-29 fighter jets worth up to 21 million euro ($25.9 million) with Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG.
The decision for signing the contract was made on March 6, a notice published by the defence ministry showed.
The initial indicative value of the agreement was 41.6 million euro, according to the notice.
The framework agreement envisages integrated logistics support of 15 fighters jets of the Bulgarian Air Force - 12 MiG-29A and three trainers MiG-29 UB - for a total of 1,450 flight hours per year.
During the talks between officials of the defence ministry and Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, which took place on February 15-16, the Bulgarian side negotiated a series of discounts on contracts to be signed under the framework agreement, the defence ministry in Sofia said in a statement earlier this month.
Bulgaria will get a 2% discount on contracts worth between 5 million euro and 10 million euro, 2.5% on contracts worth between 10 million euro and 15 million euro, and 2.8% on contracts worth over 15 million euro, the ministry said at the time.
A public procurement procedure for the jets maintenance contract was launched on December 7 last year but was suspended on December 19 due to a complaint filed with the country's competition regulator by Ukrainian company Ukrinmash. The regulator dismissed the complaint and the procedure was restarted in January.
($ = 0.8112 euro)