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Romania's President Klaus Iohannis believes the crossed presence of Romania and Poland on the eastern flank of NATO is an example that dividing the alliance into subassemblies would not be very good. "We, the Romanians, are participating in the allied presence in Poland, as Poland, Romania's strategic partner, participates in the multinational brigade. This crossed presence - Romania in the northern part of the eastern flank, the Poles in the southern part of the eastern flank - is a concrete example of cohesion and an example that Romania and Poland wanted to show in order to indicate that the eastern flank is unique and subdivisions are not very good. Of course, it is gratifying that significant developments have taken place in the area, but we believe it is still not enough," Iohannis told a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
He showed that progress had been made with the presence of NATO in the Black Sea and that efforts would be continued to strengthen the alliance's maritime posture. The Romanian head of state said he had discussed with the NATO secretary general the preparation of the NATO Summit in Brussels and the significant progress with implementing NATO's advanced presence in Romania and also in the region. "We have succeeded in taking important steps to make the Multinational Brigade in Craiova operational (...). Romania has also hosted and contributed a sizeable contingent in the last year of extensive NATO exercises, of which I would like to mention the Saber Guardian exercise, a very large exercise. I was personally at this exercise and I am pleased to acknowledge the high level of interoperability of the Romanian Armed Forces with the Allied Forces. We want to keep up a sustained pace of the joint exercises both on the national soil as well as elsewhere in the region. For that to happen, we will also use the intensified training framework at a joint level or, as it is called, Combined Joint Enhanced Training, the Romanian initiative adopted in Warsaw as part of the advanced Allied Presence. At the same time, the allied air presence in the country has been consistent in 2017 and will remain so in the period ahead," said Iohannis.
Iohannis added that NATO should strengthen its progresses by showing that "credible defence and deterrence requires persistent and robust NATO presence and a unitary approach of the eastern flank." "I am convinced that we will identify together the best concrete measures that we will then adopt at the summit," Iohannis said.
