Nikolay Georgiev Tsonev (Bulgarian: Николай Георгиев Цонев; born 9 June 1956) is a military officer in the Bulgarian Armed Forces, entrepreneur, politician, leader of the political party New Alternative (2012-2022) and former Minister of Defence in the period 2008-2009.
In fulfilment of his managerial positions, he is responsible for a number of strategic reforms in the Bulgarian Army, specifically these in the Security sector.
Along with this, he undertook financial optimizations that allowed the budget of the Ministry of Defence to reach a size of nearly 2% of Bulgaria's gross domestic product.
Before becoming a Minister of Defence, Nikolay Tsonev worked as a manager of several companies engaged in the field of light industry.
On April 24, 2008, he was appointed Minister of Defence in the government of Sergey Stanishev and remained on this position until the change of the cabinet on July 27, 2009.