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Parliament: NATO Response Force can enter, station or transit Romania, if necessary, in 2024
The plenary session of the Parliament took note, in Tuesday's reunion, of president Klaus Iohannis' letter by which the Legislature is informed that the NATO Response Force can enter, station or transit Romania for the purpose of preparation and/or military operations, if necessary, in 2024.
"Against the background of a series of overlapping crises, in 2023, the international environment has become less and less predictable, instability being the main feature of the new security dynamics. In the context of the strategic competition between the great powers and the revaluation of geopolitical approaches in international politics, the state of conflict at the regional and global level has increased. The war in Ukraine has become one of attrition, positionally, during 2023, but its winding evolution has not led the Russian Federation to give up the initial declared objectives of the invasion," reads president Iohannis' letter, transmitted to the Parliament.
According to the document, "in the event of the untimely appearance of the premises for triggering a major security crisis, with possible implications on the independence and national sovereignty of Romania, the North Atlantic Council can take the decision to deploy the NATO Response Force on Romania's territory, with the ability to very high reaction - VJTF, in order to defuse the crisis and discourage its escalation".
"Depending on the provisions of the crisis response plans, which are implemented at the level of the Alliance, the deployment on the national territory of the NATO Response Force with very high reaction capacity may include this NATO Response Force in its entirety or certain components of it, supplemented with command-control and support elements, which are established taking into account the scale, type and particularities of the operation in mind, within the operational planning process of strategic and operational level carried out at the level of the responsible command units of the Alliance", the letter details.
President Klaus Iohannis says that "for the implementation, in the very short time frame available - 72 hours -, of the measures prepared at the national level for the purpose of receiving the VJTF, it is necessary to have the approval for the deployment or transit of this Force NATO's response on the national territory".
"In this context, following the analysis of NATO's requests and taking into account the security situation in the region, (...) I inform the Romanian Parliament that I have approved the entry and stationing in Romania of the NATO response/reaction force with a very high reaction capacity raised (VJTF/ARF) or the transit of the national territory by them, for the purpose of preparing and/or carrying out military operations, if necessary, in the year 2024, as well as the mandate of the minister of National Defense to approve any changes in the structure/composition of the VJTF which may occur in relation to the planning data sent by NATO for the year 2024", the letter also informs.