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Defense Minister Mihai Fifor said on Tuesday, in the context of scrambling British Typhoon airplanes last week from the Kogalniceanu base to intercept a Russian fighter plane detected above the Black Sea, that Romania faces quite often with such challenges from Russia, underlining that our country is ready to cope with any threat.
He specified that these actions of Russia have intensified after the annexation of Crimea.
"After the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 by the Russian Federation, these activities in the Black Sea have intensified. It is important that Romania and its allies demonstrate through their actions and exercises that the Black Sea is not a Russian lake. The Black Sea is an open sea in which navigation is perfectly safe. (...) There is a game of provocation, of the response, because the Russian Federation is trying to prove that the Black Sea is the area it controls," said Mihai Fifor.
He specified that Romania would be able to participate in air policing operations with F16 aircraft as of 2019.
The minister thanked the British military at Kogalniceanu mission and said that military operations do not hinder civil air traffic.
