The United States will have 5,000 troops in Romania as part of a deterrent plan against Russia, US President Joe Biden announced before the NATO summit in Madrid began.
The U.S. President also said that Vladimir Putin receives the exact opposite of what he wanted – NATO-Europe, a North Atlantic alliance that includes most of Europe, from the Arctic Ocean and the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
“In Poland, we’re going to establish a permanent headquarters for the U.S. Army Fifth Corps and — strengthening our U.S.-NATO interoperability across the entire eastern flank.
We’re going to maintain additional rotational Brigade — which is 3,000 fighters and another 2,000 personnel — Combat Team here in Europe, headquartered in Romania.
And we’re going to enhance our rotational deployments in — deployments in the Baltic states.
And we’re going to send two additional F-35 squadrons to the UK, and station additional air defense and other capabilities in Germany and in Italy,” Biden stated.
“In a moment when Putin has shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very, very tenets of the rules-based order, the United States and our Allies — we’re going to step up. We’re stepping up. We’re proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been and it’s as important as it has ever been,” the U.S. President added.
In his turn, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday, before Biden’s announcement, that the deployment of NATO military and equipment in Romania could take months, even years, but it is important to prepare them in positions ready for immediate mobilization when needed.
“We already have a significant number of allied soldiers in Romania and we expect these numbers to increase in the coming months in order to reach the operational capacity for the combat group, for example, which will be led by France. Furthermore, if it is decided, and it seems that it will be so, that they will be completed or enlarged or improved at brigade level, we will certainly have many more soldiers. But these things will not happen overnight. These movements last for months, sometimes even years. But it is not important for us to have another 1,000 Allied soldiers tomorrow. It is important to have the decision, to prepare thoroughly and to have bands that collaborate very well together. We will not only have pre-allocated forces, ie soldiers who will know that in case something comes to Romania, we will also have prepositioned equipment, which means that certain equipment that has a reduced mobility will be positioned quite close as when it is needed. an immediate presence of troops to be simultaneously a movement of troops and a movement of equipment. These things need to be very well prepared. Military mobility is a very important issue that I have addressed many times, related to the organization of the military but also to the critical infrastructure of highways, railways and all this will have to receive a special emphasis in order to strengthen the Eastern flank “, said the President of Romania.
Klaus Iohannis reminded that Romania has decided to allocate 2.5% of GDP for defense and that this will happen starting with the 2023 budget.
“We are certainly talking here about a plan that will last at least 10 years, because these actions of modernization, endowment, superior training of the military do not happen in a year or two. It is about so-called multi-annual programs and here we want to change things and not only allocate 2.5% of GDP for defense but a significant part of this amount to be allocated for investments, so for the endowment itself,” he said.