DefMin Les: NATO should implement a long-term strategy to support Black Sea security

The North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation should "implement a long-term inclusive, comprehensive and consistent strategy, to support Black Sea Security," Minister of Defence Gabriel Les stated on Thursday at the "Atlantic - Black Sea Security Forum”, according to Agerpres.

"Russia has reached a new level of its strategic approach and it's ready to use direct aggression, in order to achieve certain political and security goals," said the Minister.

He spoke, on the same occasion, about the "aggressive" developments in the Black Sea area, most of them doubled by the "lack of transparency and predictability." Les also mentioned "the militarization of Crimea," and the movement in the area of "some modern military systems and capabilities, including offensive ones."

"All these things really worry us and we believe that the Alliance should leave behind its passive deterrence approach in the region and implement a long-term inclusive, comprehensive and consistent strategy to support security in the Black Sea," he said.

Les reminded about the military drills of Russia at the NATO border and spoke about "an aggressive and challenging dynamics that has become almost like a everyday routine."

"The strategic goals are obvious - to install and maintain military dominance and deny Western world's access to the region, to undermine the European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Georgia, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova," added the Minister.

In such a complex context full of challenges, he continued, the Black Sea has become "an area of a strategic importance for the security of the Alliance," and not only "a regional problem."

The Minister of Defence went on to speak about Romania's approach in terms of military security, in the context in which our country is currently holding the rotating presidency of the Council of EU.

According to Les, Romania's objectives are "pragmatic," as they consider the complementarity, in the defence field, between the EU and NATO.

"The European Union must adapt to the everyday realities and perform better in the defence and security field," said the Minister, who claimed that "NATO remains the essence of European defence."

In another line of thoughts, Les said that there are also challenges "which are not and will never be of NATO's concern." "European Union must strengthen itself here," he highlighted.