Security on NATO’s Eastern Flank

Russias actions force NATO Eastern Flank countries to pay special attention to the common defence system.

Roxana Vasile, 14.03.2018, 14:09

Cooperation is necessary in order to strengthen the North Atlantic Alliance’s Eastern Flank. This was the starting point of the talks held in Bucharest by the defence ministers of 9 former communist states, NATO officials and representatives of the US Department of Defence. Romania and Poland make up the engine of this so-called B9 Initiative, which also includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary. Their representatives set out to draft a set of guidelines ahead of the NATO Summit due in July in Brussels.

In this context, the Romanian Defence Minister Mihai Fifor said: “Today there is a strong Allied presence on the entire Eastern Flank, both in the north, in the Baltic area, and in the south-east, on Romanian territory and at the Black Sea. We continue to focus substantially on its implementation, and in this context we are expecting important decisions in July, decisions relevant for the Alliance’s defence and deterrence posture.”

Russia’s actions force NATO Eastern Flank countries, as well as the Alliance as a whole, to pay special attention to the common defence system. And this is no easy task, given that today a security crisis may involve both conventional means, and unconventional components, such as hybrid threats or asymmetrical challenges.

One of the solutions insisted upon in Bucharest was the earmarking of 2% of the GDP for defence, which Romania has been doing since last year, concurrently with the development of national infrastructures so as to improve the mobility of Allied troops and equipment. At the same time, national armies must be modernised and provided with high-performance equipment.

In a meeting of the participating officials with the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, the importance of the US presence on the Eastern Flank was also emphasised, as a proof of the strong American commitment to the stability of the region. Participants also discussed the need to strengthen the trans-Atlantic relationship with a view to ensuring the security of the Alliance as a whole. The President of Romania also reiterated the need to boost the cooperation between NATO and the European Union, stating that the efforts to consolidate the EU role in defence must be complementary to the North Atlantic Alliance. This would avoid redundancies and overlapping and ensure joint efforts are made in areas of common interest.

Through its Defence Minister Mihai Fifor, Romania offered to host a new NATO command centre, in addition to the current brigade command in Craiova, in the south, and divisional command in Bucharest. A decision in this respect will be made by NATO at its July Summit in Brussels.