Chief of Defense Staff: Romanian Army, to carry out defense operations in case of invocation of NATO Article 5

The Romanian Army is able to carry out defense operations, in a national and allied context, in the event of the invocation of NATO's Article 5, Chief of Defense Staff (SMA) Daniel Petrescu said on Sunday. "(...) The Romanian Army is able to carry out defense operations, in a national and allied context, in the event of the invocation of NATO's Article 5, at the same time with implementing the support measures of the host nation to allied forces transiting or acting throughout the national territory," declared Daniel Petrescu, on the occasion of the DEFENDER-Europe 21 Exercise. He added that our country is an important "actor" in the Black Sea region, which provides security and stability. "The North Atlantic Alliance and the Romanian-American Strategic Partnership remain fundamental elements in the dimension of national defense necessary to achieve security. Romania is an important actor in the Black Sea region, on the Eastern Flank of the Alliance, providing security, stability and contributing significantly to these at regional, European and Euro-Atlantic level. Daniel Petrescu also stated that the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East (HQ MNC-SE) has currently reached the necessary level of structural capacity to enable it to function as a corps formation within the NATO Force Structure. "This capability will progressively continue to grow until it reaches its final operational capacity in 2024," said the Chief of Defense Staff. DEFENDER Europe 21 is a large-scale joint multinational exercise, planned and led by United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF), aimed at increasing the response capacity and interoperability between the U.S. Armed Forces and forces of NATO member and partner countries. At its final stage, the DEFENDER-Europe 21 exercise integrates approximately 28,000 soldiers from Allied and partner military forces from 26 nations, who are simultaneously training in more than 30 training areas in 12 countries. The activities specific to the command exercise DEFENDER Europe 21 CAX / CPX, which takes place between June 10-14 in Romania (Bucharest) and Germany, are attended by about 400 soldiers belonging to the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East and 46th Support Battalion, the British Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, V Corps from the U.S. Army Europe and Africa, as well as from various structures of the Romanian Army. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mihai Stoica, editor: Catalin Alexandru; EN - editor: Simona Iacob)