Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has announced in Brussels on Thursday that our country had obtained two major things at the NATO Summit, namely an operational command center and the improvement of the multinational brigade’s statute.
„Since 2016 at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, we have been trying to consolidate the Eastern Flank, we have made this attempt together with the other countries on the Eastern flank (…) we have gradually obtained an acceptance of the eastern flank’s importance. This year we have obtained other two major things: a three-star operational command center, from the lowest to the highest tactic level. I think we’ll have 400 staff officers deployed from the NATO countries. And secondly, we have obtained an improvement of the multinational brigade’s statute, meaning it has gained a permanent statute,” President Iohannis told a press conference held at NATO HQ.
The Romanian head of state also said that an entire session of the summit has been held at Romania’s initiative, dedicated to the Black Sea issue, with guests from Georgia and Ukraine, in the attempt of placing the Black Sea region on NATO’s map.
He also informed that Romania’s presence in Afghanistan will rise from about 700 soldiers to over 950 next year. „It’s a significant increase in Romania, but we believe that NATO is not just about receiving security, but also about providing security”, he stressed, while adding: „The Romanian soldiers are appreciated in Afghanistan and I am proud of them”.
Speaking about the extraordinary session of the summit today, Iohannis revealed that the issue of burden sharing had been highly at issue, and explained the intense debate had prompted the cancellation of the bilateral meetings. „We’ve reached optimistic conclusions. Some allies have committed to increase their expenses for defence,” the Romanian president said.
„Trump has talked things through, as allies usually do. The conclusion was that NATO is strong, we’ll stick together, but member states must increase the expenses for defence a little bit,” Klaus Iohannis concluded.
United States president Donald Trump has said he has secured a commitment from NATO member states to increase their share of defence spending to more than 2% of their annual output (GDP).
“The US were not treated fairly but now we are. I believe in NATO,” Trump told a press conference, adding he believed in NATO and it was “presently unnecessary” to consider quitting it.
“We made a tremendous amount of progress today,” Trump said.