Romania and Poland want to host new NATO commands

Defense Ministers from the nine nations on NATO's Eastern Flank analyze in Bucharest current security risks and threats, progress made on decisions taken at the Warsaw NATO summit, and priority issues for the upcoming July summit in Brussels. Poland and Romania are the engine of the "Bucharest 9 Initiative", which includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary. In a press conference with his Polish counterpart, Romanian Defense Minister Mihai Fifor referred to the coordination of the Eastern Bloc Allies for the decisions NATO will take at the summit this summer:

"We want to have the Multinational Brigade from Craiova operational by the end of this year, together with our allies, and, of course, with Poland - which gives us substantial support - a chance to thank my Polish counterpart for all the support provided to the Multinational Brigade in Craiova", Fifor said in a press conference on the occasion of the “Bucharest 9 (B9) Initiative” meeting.

Polish Defense Minister will be today in Craiova, where he will meet with the Polish soldiers, Fifor said, while reiterating the desire that the presence of military troops in the Multinational Brigade should be based on the Polish model, on rotation.

"Romania has repeatedly called for an allied military presence on its territory, and the fact that we were talking about the operationalization of the Multinational Brigade in Craiova means, among other things, this: affiliation to the Multinational Brigade of as many countries as possible, so that we can have here a multifunctional brigade in the true sense of the word, not only in peacetime. On the other hand, as we all know, in Romania there are American troops deployed and in every meeting I had with the Secretary of Defense, Mr. James Mattis, we have requested that in Romania, the presence of the American troops be made on a Polish model, that is, on rotation, but for a longer period of time. We continue to take steps in this regard, because for Romania it is important to have the presence of US militaries on its territory, and also of other allied states, by affiliation to the Multinational Brigade, and by participating in the exercises we have each year", said the Romanian high-ranking official.

As Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said, he will support Romania to host a NATO Army Command in the future. Answering a question for Radio Romania Actualitati (Radio Romania News, RRA), Polish Minister of Defense said that Romania and Poland are mutual supporters within the Alliance.

Mariusz Błaszczak: "During the Defense Ministers' talks in Brussels on the future changes to NATO military command structures, I told Minister Mihai Fifor that we would support each other. Reform of the Alliance provides for a number of important new commands. There are no obstacles in the way of these aspirations. Both Poland and Romania have aspirations to host these headquarters".

In the context of the B9 meeting, Mihai Fifor stressed the importance of coordination and coherence on the eastern flank, noting that this was also highlighted in the works of the meeting in Bucharest.

"At the allied level, we are in the process of preparing for the next NATO Summit. Today, the Alliance’s advanced presence is materialized across its entire eastern flank, both in the Northeast, in the Baltic area and in the Southeast, at the Black Sea. We continue to focus greatly on its implementation and, in this context, we are expecting important decisions in July that are relevant to the position of defense and allied deterrence. Romania, like Poland, has a substantive involvement in the negotiations and we want to be an active actor, an important player at the big decisions table, by promoting our own security interest, mainly linked to adaptation measures, as well as by increasing the deterrence profile on the eastern flank", Romanian Defense Minister said.

Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak has shown that a Romanian-Polish collaboration - between the largest states in the eastern NATO flank - is a key to a broader co-operation.

"We are very glad to see the Romanian forces in Poland and we are trying to support Romania by our presence here. (...) Implementation of the decisions taken at the Warsaw NATO Summit is properly done; we want NATO's response to the challenges to be as precise and complete as possible. We want that NATO's adaptation to threats to be as good as possible. Threats are present - everyone knows that very well, everyone can identify them - and we agree on how to counter them", said Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei