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The Romanian-American Strategic Partnership is becoming more robust each year, regardless of the administrations in Bucharest or in Washington, said on Monday Mircea Geoana, during an online briefing, in Brussels, for Romanian journalists, hailing, in his quality as NATO Deputy Secretary General, as positive any additional form of collaboration between allies.
"The document signed by the American Secretary of Defense and the Romanian Minister of National Defence regarding a plan for the next ten years is a document that contains several important guidelines, although obviously it will depend on the two allied states to make it concrete and then develop in concrete operational plans these elements of collaboration between the two allied states," added Geoana, mentioning that the "level of synergy between the USA and Romania and many other Europeans is very high."
Geoana mentioned that Romania is not the only state that attempts to consolidate on the bilateral level the collaboration with the US, giving in this sense the example of Poland, which has a similar approach.
In context, Mircea Geoana spoke also of the NATO-EU collaboration on the topic of military mobility in forums such as the Three Seas Initiative, of which Romania is part of.
"Everything meaning infrastructure which are at the same time economic (...) and which have a dual military and strategic utility are things that we are encouraging. That's why we expect at the level of the EU also the EU budget be approved, the financial perspective for the next seven years. It's true that the sum today, at 1.5 billion euro, is not as ambitious as the initial proposal, but even if the money is relatively less, the way in which the EU and NATO are working together on topics of military mobility is a precursor for what we will have to do," Mircea Geoana also said.
In Western Europe there is dual use infrastructure since the Cold War, "which can support the rapid transit of very heavy military equipment over bridges, through tunnels, on motorways."
"These have to be done in our area too, I am speaking of Romania's geography (...), and I believe that it's a plus both from the economic point of view, as well as from the strategic point of view, and brings an element of additional resilience and I am glad to see that there is also in the Three Seas Initiative projects such as a north-south railway, elements that represent a step forward both economically, as well as militarily and strategically for our region and for Romania," Geoana emphasized.
