President Iohannis says unity, coherence needed to adopt defence and deterrence measures on Eastern Flank

AGERPRES special correspondent Florentina Peia reports: President Klaus Iohannis stated on Friday that there is a need of unity and coherence in order to adopt the defence and deterrence measures on the entire Eastern Flank.

"In order to adopt the defence and deterrence measures on the entire Eastern Flank we need unity and coherence. In order for this thing to become a reality, the key priorities are: ensuring a coherent collaboration of the advanced presence; developing all the dimensions of the advanced presence in the Black Sea region; ensuring a consistent command and control arrangement for the advanced presence that will cover all situations," Iohannis stated at the military Session of the B9, organised at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

He underscored that Romania will further act as a reliable ally, showing that last year our country made consistent investments in its own defence, according to the commitments it took on inside NATO.

"We have advanced significantly in terms of expenditure on defence and modernisation of armed forces. We are a major contributor to the Alliance's missions and operations. We are actively participating in strengthening the defence and deterrence posture both on the Eastern Flank, the national territory and in Poland. We grant support to our partners in the East and South, and we host the Aegis Ashore system in Deveselu, a part of NATO's defence system against ballistic missiles," the head of state said.

In this context he underscored that the NATO Summit should be about "unity, solidarity and efficiency," indicating that military mobility is a key-aspect.

"Generally speaking, we are in favor of a more structured cooperation between NATO and the EU in full complementarity. The recent progress registered in the Common Security and Defence Policy/CSDP is very important both for adapting the conceptual frameworks and for improving the capabilities development process. Now we must focus on implementation. On the military dimension, the implementation of PESCO is most important. At the same time, an efficient civil Common Security and Defence Policy/CSDP is important. In respect to the defence industry, a beneficial cooperation among member states is necessary in view of ensuring security, but also the economic growth, innovation and increasing the number of jobs in member states," President Iohannis indicated.

He gave assurances that these topics will have an important place on the agenda of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2019. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)