Jittery Romania Raises 2014 Defence Budget

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Monday said the government will raise the defence budget by 700 million lei (some 156 million euro), from current 6.4 billion lei, in order to upgrade military capabilities.

Romania is concerned that after annexing the peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine, Russia may extend operations in Ukraine to include the break-away pro-Russian region on Transnistria in neighbouring Moldova. Russian troops are already stationed in the self-proclaimed republic of Transnistria.

“Romanian armed forces have to improve their technological equipment. What is important is that these upgrades will be manufactured mainly by Romanian factories,” Ponta said.

Ponta added that the European Commission and the IMF, with whom Bucharest has a stand-by agreement, have agreed to the spending increase. The budget revision is expected to take place after July 1.

Early this month, Ponta said Romania would have to raise military spending in coming years to reach 2 per cent of GDP by 2017.

The defence budget in Romania was only 1.36 per cent of GDP last year, well below the average European rate of around 2 per cent.

Since armed clashes worsened in eastern Ukraine, and since the parliament in breakaway Transdniester on April 16 formally asked to join Russia, Romania has expressed growing concern about the situation on its borders.

Romania, which has a 694km-long border with Ukraine, has been among the strongest regional backers of Western sanctions against Russia since it annexed Crimea.

NATO-member Romania is one of the Alliance’s strongest supporters among the ex-Communist countries of Eastern Europe.

Last October, the installation of US missile interceptors began at the Deveselu military base in southern...