NATO offers Romania a high level of security, President-Klaus Iohannis said Thursday as American troops crossed the country in an open-ended deployment to reassure allies worried about Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine.
Troops
More than 100,000 troops and hardware are amassed near Ukraine’s borders, which Romania also borders. “This proves once more that the measures taken by NATO are necessary,” the president said without mentioning the countries by name.
He spoke during a visit on Thursday to the Multinational Brigade South-East in Craiova, an infantry brigade of the Romanian Land Forces with Defense Minister Vasile Dincu on Thursday.
Romania hosts three NATO bases, including a missile shield station and a base on the Black Sea.
“NATO is without doubt the most solid security guarantee for Romania. (This is) very important with heightened risks, threats and challenges to European security,” Mr. Iohannis said.
Military alliance
Promising that Romania would remain committed to the military alliance, he praised the U.S. and France for promising additional troops amid the tensions.
Some 1,000 American troops in all are preparing to head to Romania.
Soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment based in Vilseck, Germany, entered Romania late Wednesday will remain there to shore up NATO’s eastern flank as long as the mission requires, a U.S. Army commander said.
France has also promised to send additional troops.
Euro-Atlantic partnership
“It is a clear signal of coherence and consistency of the Euro-Atlantic partnership,” the president said.
Defense Minister Vasile Dîncu said the Ukraine crisis was a pretext for Russia to try to carve out a new world on paper.
The minister sought to reassure the public that Romania was not at risk of invasion despite fears about the situation spilling over into Romania.
Russian ambassador
He was responding to Russia’s ambassador who the previous day said Moscow didn’t want to inspect a missile shield in southern Romania. Instead, the Kremlin wants written guarantees that the site will not be used against Russia.
“We don’t think written guarantees are necessary in this case,” Ambassador Valery Kuzmin said Wednesday. “ What Russia is trying to do is to carve up the world on paper and create new spheres of interest. That’s what it was referring to.”
“Each nation should be able to freely choose its own destiny, it shouldn’t occupy other territories, but let nations decide their own fate. These are the guarantees of the contemporary civilized world. It was in the name of these values that the political-military alliance that NATO is was created.”
