Romanian-American military cooperation
With the purchase of new US missile systems, Bucharests military cooperation with Washington is given a new impetus
Bogdan Matei, 28.11.2017, 14:00
Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, has promulgated the law on the purchase of seven Patriot US missile systems. The normative act was adopted last week by the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body on this issue, after having previously been endorsed by the Senate. According to the defence minister, Mihai Fifor, the Romanian Army might soon use the new systems, which haven been deemed by experts as state-of-the art. “The first system will arrive in Romania in the second half of 2019, and it will be rendered fully operational in the first half of 2020. The program is practically spanning seven years, and the systems will be ready to use at the end of this time span”- the minister has explained.
The Defence Ministry’s procurement plan also includes the purchase of Piranha 8×8 armoured vehicles. The first 30 such vehicles will be purchased also from the US, and the next ones might be manufactured at the Bucharest Mechanical Plant. The money earmarked for these purchases come from the state budget. Thanks to a political pact backed by all parliamentary parties, both in Power and in Opposition, of right or left wing orientation, two percentage points of Romania’s GDP have been allocated for defence.
This is what both the US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, have wanted from all the NATO member states. Just as experts have pointed out, after tens of years under NATO’s safety umbrella, the Europeans have expected the Americans to defend and protect them from foreign threats. And, against the backdrop of rising threats in the East and the South, there is high time for Europe to invest more consistently into its own security. Romania is considered to be one of the best-performing countries from this standpoint and its military cooperation with the US is deemed excellent, the more so as the two countries boast a 20-year Strategic Partnership.
As the US ambassador to Bucharest, Hans Klemm, has underlined, Romania is currently the fourth largest contributor as part of the NATO Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, exceeding for instance Great Britain. Hans Klemm also says the US military consider the over 620 Romanian colleagues deployed to that Central-Asian country to fight terrorism to be very valuable. Actually, although it was not a member of NATO, an alliance which it joined as late as 2004, Bucharest rallied, from the very first moment, the international anti-terror coalition set up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Furthermore, Romania is hosting NATO-led multinational exercises, military bases and elements of the US missile defence shield, which makes it one of the US’ most important partners in the region. (Translated by D. Vijeu)
