SOFIA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Restart of the Belene nuclear plant project was one of the solutions which can ensure Bulgaria's energy security, the country's vice president Iliana Iotova said Wednesday.

Iotova made her statement at a conference on Bulgaria's energy security and future, which called for the development of the country's nuclear energy sector.

Iotova said the international energy market was becoming ever more complicated, and Bulgaria should hold a place in it. The Balkan country's nuclear power industry was also a guarantee for national and regional security, she said.

The number of countries developing nuclear energy had increased since 2015. The period has seen the launch of 26 new nuclear reactors. The main question today was not whether to have nuclear plants but how to make them safer, she noted.

Iotova said she hoped that this time the matter would be addressed pragmatically rather than becoming a cause for political clashes, and the Belene nuclear power plant would be finally constructed.

On Thursday, Bulgarian lawmakers will begin discussing two draft resolutions on restarting the Belene project, which was ordered to cancel in 2012.

Last month, Russian news agency Sputnik reported that the Bulgarian Energy Ministry should submit options to use equipment produced in Russia for the Belene nuclear power plant, including a relaunch of the project, by late June 2018.