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Ambassador Auer: 150 servicemen of French permanent inter-army tactical group arriving in Constanta
The French inter-army tactical group will be stationed in Romania on a permanent basis, and the first 150 servicemen are scheduled to arrive at the 'Mihail Kogalniceanu' Military Air Base in Constanta, French Ambassador in Bucharest Laurence Auer said.
The French diplomat considers this deployment sends "a message of solidarity".
France announced this already on January 19, we were ready, and the first servicemen of the NATO tactical group arrive today. This is a member group with several hundred French soldiers, who will be stationed for the moment at the 'Mihail Kogalniceanu' Air Base in Constanta. They will arrive soon. The transport of their materials and equipment started yesterday and the troops are scheduled to arrive today, about 150 servicemen are due to touch down at the military base at 15:00. It's the first batch of French servicemen to arrive, said Laurence Auer.
The diplomat expressed France's solidarity with Romania, "at a critical time for European security."
I also believe that this sends a message about the importance of the deterrence posture, because we are talking about a force that will strengthen the security of the Romanian territory and that will contribute to NATO's deterrent posture. It is a force that will stay here on a permanent basis, it's not a rotational one. This is about installing a permanent French military presence in order to bring all the necessary support to the security of the Romanian territory in the future, Auer said.
Regarding the Macron-Putin dialogue before the start of the Russian onslaught on Ukraine, the French ambassador said that despite diplomatic efforts previous to the Russian invasion, the situation changed on February 24. This is an invasion, a violation of all principles of sovereignty, of security in Europe, of all the principles laid out in international treaties, in the UN Charter, and the situation today is not comparable. The efforts that are being made are to make sure that humanitarian assistance and all humanitarian conventions are respected, that civilians are protected from this conflict, the diplomat said.
"I welcome the arrival of the French military in Romania! France's strategic solidarity with NATO allies on the eastern flank, implicitly Romania, is shown by the active strengthening of the defense posture on this defensive alignment in the face of the proliferation of the Russian Federation's threats against peace and security in Europe," says Romania's Chief of the Defense Staff, General Daniel Petrescu.
According to the Chief of the Defense Staff, "strengthening the response capacity of national forces and supplementing the allied ground and air capabilities on the territory of Romania are eminently defensive measures aimed at maintaining the military balance in this region of the European continent".