Romania is carefully monitoring the situation in the Black Sea and the possible development of the military conflict of the Russian Federation towards Odessa and remains concerned regarding the fact that the Black Sea is not, practically, open for international circulation, said the Minister of National Defence, Vasile Dincu, on the occasion of the meeting of the Chiefs of European Navies, organized, Wednesday and Thursday, in Bucharest, by the Romanian Naval Forces.
According to a release of the Ministry of National Defence (MApN), Minister Vasile Dincu was present at the official opening of the reunion, where he hailed the presence, in Romania, of the 25 chiefs of naval forces from European countries which are NATO or EU members and the representatives of the leaderships of NATO's Allied Maritime Command and the US Sixth Fleet deployed to Europe, the latter having the status of observers.
"We are all living extremely hard times here, in the Black Sea region, following the military aggression of the Russian Federation on a sovereign and independent state, Ukraine," said the Minister in his speech on the occasion, according to the quoted source.
Vasile Dincu mentioned that the presence in Bucharest of the heads of naval forces in Europe is "all the more relevant in the context of fighting in the Black Sea, the Russian forces being, close to the mouths of the Danube, on Snake Island."
"Romania is monitoring carefully this situation, the possible development of the conflict towards Odessa, and remains concerned that the Black Sea is not, practically, open to international circulation," said the Romanian Minister of Defence.
He reiterated that the operationalization of the NATO Battle Group in Romania is growing closer and that, together with those in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary, will lead to the consolidation of this flank of the Alliance.
Ministe Dincu showed his appreciation for the role of military navies in this complicated geopolitical context and said that he is convinced that "participating in NATO and European Union naval missions and operations have contributed to obtaining interoperability, so necessary at this time," the quoted source also shows.
Vasile Dincu stated his opinion that the war between Russia and Ukraine reveals a new series of challenges towards global security, with short-, medium- and long-term implications.
"Ahead of this, we must remain united, cooperate closely, as we have especially since the start of this inhuman war, continue to train together, executing missions in responsibility and interest areas and, essentially, evolve together," said Dincu.
"In the context of the current security challenges in the European maritime space, CHENS contributes to the consolidation of a unitary vision among the representatives of European naval forces regarding cooperation in the domain and facilitates discussing defining concepts (...) of the command and control mechanism , as well as the development of military dialogue at the high level and European military cooperation in the naval domain," the release mentions.
Romania holds the Presidency of this European Forum since last year, and the head of the Naval Forces General Staff, Rear Admiral Mihai Panait, turned over, on Thursday, the leadership of the structure to his Irish counterpart, Commodore Micheal Malone.
The meeting of the Chiefs of European Navies is an informal and independent forum, composed of the head of military navies in EU or NATO member-states that have naval forces. The purpose of CHENS is to promote, continuously, cooperation between the military navies of member-states, to analyze joint interest problems and to improve situational awareness in the maritime domain in member-states. AGERPRES
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