Romania should be aware of the "responsibility" and "consequences" of NATO staff supplementation on its territory, warns the Russian Foreign Ministry, classifying as "dangerous" the NATO actions, Mediafax reports.
"Strengthening NATO forces in Eastern Europe is an unprecedented step, which violates all existing agreements," said Alexander Lukashevich, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to the agency TASS.
"In the absence of clarifications regarding the substantial combat troops and if the Romanian Government considers that it is possible to supplement the presence of NATO units on its territory, including the creation of a force so powerful, they should be aware of the responsibility and the consequences of such a step" Lukashevich warned, classifying NATO actions as "dangerous".
The Russian official noted that NATO and Russia have agreed not to mobilize excessive military capabilities, insisting on the principle of mutual dissuasiveness.
The Romanian Government approved Thursday a bill on the stationing, operations deployment and armed forces transit on the Romanian territory, prime minister Victor Ponta said it referred to staff and equipment for the NATO command center which Romania will host. The bill amends Law nr. 291/2007 on access, stationing and operations deployment or foreign armed forces transit on the territory of Romania. The Minister of Defense, Mircea Duşa, pointed out that the bill also needs the endorsement from CSAT. " It is for the command centers and storage of NATO effects. We have to have the endorsement of CSAT", Duşa pointed out.
The areas covered by the project relate mainly to the pre-positioning of military goods, equipment and materials from foreign armed forces, accompanied, where appropriate, by the service personnel to adapt procedures for crossing the state border of Romania, to training needs, optimizing the host nation support in the context of collective defense effort, adapting the procedures for setting up / dislocation of commands, entities/elements or multinational structures to the requirements of collective defense effort made available for NATO .
NATO announced in January, the construction of two regional headquarters in Romania and Poland, and the establishment of command centers of the Rapid Reaction Force in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Rapid Reaction Force, created amid Russia's actions in Ukraine, will be available for intervention within 48 hours.