Romania’s Supreme Defense Council Lays Down the Strategy for 2015

The Supreme Defense Council on Tuesday for the last time convened in a meeting chaired by acting president Traian Basescu.

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Valentin Țigău, 26.11.2014, 14:12

Drafting a law that should secure natural gas supplies for Romania and the neighbouring Republic of Moldova by exploiting natural gas deposits in the Black Sea, as well as securing the number of military to be deployed in 2015 in Afghanistan or Balkans states ranked high on the agenda of the Supreme Defense Council meeting, the last chaired by Traian Basescu, whose second term in office as president is coming to an end on December 21. As regards the 2015 budget of national security institutions, the Council decided that budgets be endorsed after the Government had made an estimate of its available resources.

The Council agreed to deploy a number of 895 military in operations abroad next year, down by 416 military as compared to 2014. Moreover, an additional 450 military will be deployed on the NATO-led International Security mission in Afghanistan. Council members also looked at the effects of the Ukrainian crisis, which affects some of Romania’s strategic fields, such as maritime and air security, economic security, as well as our country’s political relations with states in the region and the Russian Federation.

Council members agreed that the top priorities right now were the consolidation of the country’s own defensive capabilities, its operations abroad, stepping up the efficiency of relations with EU and NATO states, supporting Moldova’s European accession efforts and setting up a framework to foster dialogue with Kiev. Another topic on the agenda of the meeting was updating the Plan to Boost Economic Growth for defense.

In addition, Council members looked at the measures Romania introduced to apply sanctions at international level between October 2013 and September 2014. The Council concluded that Romanian institutions had applied sanctions under the framework law and sectorial regulations. Romanian officials claim Bucharest may toughen its sanctions on Moscow, which would result in insignificant social or economic consequences for the country. The country’s natural gas output accounts for 80% of its consumption, while its trade relations with the Russian Federation do not exceed 5 billion Euros.