Mircea Geoana: The NATO summit will bring good news for Romania

At next week's NATO summit in Madrid, the Black Sea region will be recognized as having a strategic importance in collective defense, and fighting groups in Romania and other Eastern countries may be advanced to the rank of brigade, say political sources quoted by the RRA editor Oana Bala.

Talks in the Spanish capital will also focus on Finland's and Sweden's bids to join NATO, but no decision is in sight, due to Turkey's blockade.

The Deputy Secretary General of the Alliance, Mircea Geoana, said that the NATO summit will bring good news for Romania, but also for Ukraine, for the transatlantic relationship and for the Alliance itself.

Mircea Geoana: From a military and security point of view, Romania will have, due to the fact that Russia is an unpredictable and aggressive actor, the same quality of national security as Germany or Belgium. There will be no difference between what NATO has on the eastern flank and what NATO already has in Western Europe. It is a fundamental change. Next week we are going to Madrid to the NATO summit and we are waiting for historical news for Romania.

Translated by: Radu Matei