Geoana: I want the Romanians to be absolutely convinced that NATO is very serious in defending the entire allied territory

The deputy general secretary of NATO, Mircea Geoană, declared on Wednesday evening, in Brussels, during an exclusive interview for Agerpres, that he wants the Romanians to be absolutely convinced that NATO is very serious in defending the entire allied territory, including Romania.

Referring to the transformation of the battle group in Romania into a brigade, something for which the authorities in Bucharest are currently taking steps, the senior NATO official said, among other things, that this will be tested through an exercise that will have place in Romania this spring.

“I want to welcome the fact that France and other allies, together with the ally host country Romania, are preparing very seriously to be able to create the conditions for this battle group to be, if necessary, brought to the level of a brigade. And this will be tested through an exercise that we will do in Romania this spring (…) Not only in Romania, but in all the battle groups, there is a joint effort of the countries that make up those battle groups and obviously we, from the NATO side, in order to be sure that we have military exercises that allow us to practice that”, said Mircea Geoană.

He also stated that “there is very often, and it is legitimate, an interest in quantity: how much, at what level? We also put a lot of emphasis on quality, on the multi-domain dimension”.

“Because, for example, in the case of Romania, the Black Sea is a complex case. And in the case of Romania, it is very important to have this multidimensional perspective, both cybernetic, and spatial, and information, and matters related to the marine and submarine in the sense of technologies adapted to the situation there”, explained Geoană.

He wanted to specify that the battle group from Romania is developing very well, “Romania is doing its duty as a host country, and is investing and preparing for this, and we, until (the meeting in) Vilnius, will be sure that we will have the entire eastern flank practiced up to the brigade level and we will see in the next period all the elements that make this up”.

“And, once again, I want the Romanian men and women, those who will read this interview, to be absolutely convinced of the fact that NATO is very serious in the defense of the entire allied territory, including and especially, since we are talking about my country, Romania “, emphasized the deputy general secretary of NATO.

Regarding a possible Ukrainian offensive this spring, which was first talked about by the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, the NATO official said that the Ukrainians are calculating their chances very carefully.

“We can say that the way they planned their recent counteroffensives – both in Donbas and in the south – shows us that they are military leaders and political leaders who know how to calculate their decisions very carefully. That is why we are convinced that when they decide, and where they decide, and how they decide, they will take into account both the realities on the ground and the realities related to logistics. And the general secretary said that it is actually a war of logistics. And I am convinced that these things are taken into account by our Ukrainian partners and I am convinced that when they launch this offensive, or offensives, in the plural, they will enjoy success”, assured Mircea Geoană.

In the interview, which will be published in its entirety on Thursday, Mircea Geoană also referred to how the war in Ukraine could evolve, to the adjustment of surveillance and interception systems at air and anti-aircraft level and to his future plans.

Editor: Liviu Cojan