The Supreme Defense Council of the Country (CSAT) endorsed on Wednesday, NATO aircrafts presence in Romania, President Traian Basescu announced after the end of the meeting.
"One (of the CSAT decisions – editor’s note) was related to the presence of combat aircraft of NATO members on Romania’s territory, in rotation, not all at once, which are part of the NATO integrated defense system which along with Romanian aircraft should ensure air police, " the president said.
The President said that this means that beyond fighters, other 200 soldiers, pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers will be stationed in Romania to ensure the operation of these NATO allies aircrafts providing air police operation in Romania’s area of responsibility.
"This decision has been adopted, will communicate NATO our approval for the presence of NATO combat aircrafts on airports in Romania and in the Romanian airspace" Basescu said.
The second item on the CSAT meeting agenda was related to the possibility of participating as a coordinator state in the NATO fund project to support Ukraine in the cyber area.
"Romania is ready to assume one of the four programs of the NATO nation as leader, and the program that we want to engage in is related to the cyber defense of Ukraine," Basescu said, adding that the decision was adopted by the CSAT.
Read below the main statements the President made:
“We have held a CSAT meeting to clarify two issues, one related to the presence of aircrafts and fighters belong to the NATO state on the Romanian territory, these are aircrafts that are part of the NATO integrated defense system and they will provide air police operations”
“On the country’s territory, 200 men will be stationed to ensure the performance of the aircrafts”
-“The decision has been adopted and we will communicate it to NATO”
“Another point, related to the cyber defense. Romania engages in one of the four NATO programs, in its capacity of nation leader and the program we wish to engage in is related to Ukraine cyber defense. These were the two resolutions adopted in the today’s CSAT meeting”.
-“Today we have not discussed the mandate for tomorrow, three institutions will deal with this: the Presidency of Romania, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Defense Ministry. A mandate has not been entrusted today as that was not possible, our position has been negotiated for two months
- On Russia : the action has reached limits bordering the irrational . When they stopped respecting a country’s borders, we no longer speak about rationality. Further down the same line, Romania is launching a generic call for the consolidation of the Eastern flank of the Alliance, from North to South, which would entail the introduction of Romania in the alert system and reaction capabilities.
-We require the operability increase of the Romanian army, air, naval and ground-based with emphasis on the naval force considering the force the Russian fleet has. We do not hide the fact that this fleet raises our concerns.
-“There have to be, in our opinion , on the country’s territory, command structures”
-“Each state must be able to cope with such pressures, but when there are regular pressures being made at the borders, the NATO’s intervention against the forces that are at the borders is mandatory, for a smaller state cannot cope with another smaller state with little green men
-“This is s a new model of war, quite successful in weak states who neglect their own armed forces. In such states, hybrid war-type actions succeed, in strong states, they do not
-“We would want the NATO summit to re-confirm the continuation of the missile system defense installation . ”
-We are also looking forward for the confirmation of the strategic importance of the Black Sea, following the developments in Ukraine. The Black Sea is surrounded by a belt of conflicts that may be ignited by the push of a button from Moscow.
“We have managed, with considerable efforts to introduce the concept on the occasion of the summit in Bucharest, in 2008”
-We want a clear definition of the future relations between NATO and the Russian Federation, there is a founding document since 1997, when no one believed that the Russian Federation would have the power to perform actions like those we have in Ukraine today and should see what is the value of this document and if its principles still remain valid further on.
- Certainly, at the NATO summit, the United States will ask again for 2% of GDP raise in defense spending