BUCHAREST, Romania — In a May virtual meeting with President Joe Biden, a group of nine Eastern European NATO countries led by Romania called for a bigger allied military presence on the Eastern Bloc. The group, known as the Bucharest Nine, saw an imminent threat from Russia’s troop buildup of 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine. Romania wants more American troops to deter Russia, and they are making investments to secure it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin still believes the Bucharest Nine countries to be within his sphere of influence, and he is using hybrid warfare to inject misinformation and divide NATO members. Romania is pushing back through its relationship with the United States, investing heavily in defense infrastructure, multi-lateral exercises, and American military hardware.
During Defender Europe exercises hosted by Romania on the Black Sea coast, the Washington Examiner spoke to both Romania’s defense minister and foreign minister to understand how the threat posed by Russia has increased since the seizure and militarization of Crimea seven years ago.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu:
WEX: What did President Joe Biden say about U.S. defense support for the former Eastern Bloc, Bucharest Nine countries (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia)?
FMBA: “During [the May 9 B9] summit, the message of President Biden was very strong as far as the commitment to Article 5, the importance of making the trans-Atlantic bond even stronger. He said that this is not only uniting the two shores of the Atlantic, but it’s going across Europe towards the Black Sea, including this very important [area] from a strategic point of view for the alliance.
“He said that his participation was meant to convey a strong message of security for the defense of the eastern flank, including Romania and the Black Sea. So, we are looking forward to strengthening the political-military dimension of the partnership.”
WEX: Why is the Black Sea strategically important to NATO?
FMBA: “If you take a look at the map, you understand that this is strategically important because the presence here in the Black Sea of Russia due to occupied Crimea, to the military buildup of Russian forces in the region, and recently we have witnessed the most massive deployments of troops and equipment since the Cold War, according to the experts.
“This shows how important it is to reinforce, of course, the eastern flank, and during the NATO summit, one of the most important decisions that was taken within the NATO 2030 package by Secretary-General Stoltenberg was to consolidate further the deterrence and defense posture of the Alliance, which according to the NATO summit final communiqué is at the heart of the Alliance. We have to further develop the full range of forces and capabilities necessary to ensure critical deterrence and defense. So, I think it’s obvious that what we need to consolidate this posture of the Alliance, in face of the multiple challenges created by Russia, in order to project its force in the region.”
WEX: How can Romania better deter Russia in the Black Sea region?
FMBA: “We have some NATO structures on our territory, some command and control units that, [bilateral and multilateral military] exercises, but we need more allied presence, including U.S. presence on the ground. We have our multinational brigade in Craiova, but, for the time being, it’s only Poland which has a presence on the ground.
“We need more allies on permanent rotation, I mean, this term ‘robust and persistent rotation,’ we use the term. A lot has been done as far as the Allied presence on land, on sea, and in the air. I think we need more in order to effectively deter Russia in the region.”
WEX: Do you believe Biden’s offer of a summit with Putin was a concession after the Russian president committed the aggressive act of massing 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine?
FMBA: “No, I don’t think so. I think it’s a meeting which comes up as a natural meeting. I think it’s important to have a dialogue with Russia. This is the approach that we have in NATO and in the European Union. In NATO, it’s quite clear, it’s a dual-track approach. On one hand, deterrence and defense, and we just decided that we should consolidate the NATO deterrence and defense posture, and, on the other hand, dialogue because we need to also discuss with the Russians in order to understand what are their positions from a first-hand approach.”
WEX: How is Russia specifically using hybrid warfare against Romania?
FMBA: “We were very attentive to what any kind of nonlike-minded actor is trying to do as far as influencing, let’s say, the public opinion in Romania. Or, certain, let’s say, areas of the Romanian society. I think it’s our duty to build our resilience in the face of such kind of challenges.
The Euro-Atlantic Centre for Resilience, that’s why it’s such an important thing, and one of the areas [where] this center will act is social resilience, the resilience of strategic infrastructure, in communications, the resilience in terms of managing [an evolving] situation and emergencies.”
WEX: Why should NATO risk provoking Russia by assisting non-NATO partners such as Ukraine?
FMBA: “I don’t think you’re provoking Russia in any way, I think we are only helping the countries which are provoked by Russia already, and in doing so, we are in fact trying to restore the natural course of events.
“Supporting these partners is important for our security as well. It’s our neighbors, and if the partners in our neighborhood are safe, stable, follow a democratic path, democratic reforms toward their Euro-Atlantic and European aspirations, I think this is something that contributes a lot to our security as well.”
Romanian Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca:
WEX: What is Romania’s contribution to NATO?
DMNC: “We were part of the Alliance operations [since 2004], but we were also part of the Coalition operations starting with 2002 since Romania sent the first infantry battalion in Afghanistan. Then we followed all the commitments in Iraq, in the Western Balkans. So, even now, we are part of the Operation Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan. We coordinate all these involvements with the United States.
“Ten years ago, in 2011, we committed ourselves to host the AEGIS Ashore component, which is part of the Alliance missile-defense system in Europe.
“Romania has started a very ambitious endowment program, and we have already a very important capacity for modernizing our armed forces. The first Patriot system has arrived last year. In this year, we received the first HIMARS system. We are very proud to say that we are the first European country who has operationalized this kind of capability, which are able to really defend the country, defend the region, and also defend the alliance.”
WEX: How has the security dynamic in the Black Sea changed in the seven years since Russia seized Crimea?
DMNC: “We can see all the novelties the Russian armed forces have deployed to the Black Sea. So, all the new frigates, All the new corvettes, of the new Kilos-II submarines, all the missile system that have been deployed to Crimea. So, we now notice that the frigates, corvettes, and the submarines are carrying Kalibr missiles, which has a capability which may strike over 2,000 kilometers. Their A2AD capabilities developed within Crimea also have been deployed into very strong. And, we can see that the military capabilities developed within the Black Sea are strong message for all the riparian countries of the Black Sea.
WEX: Last year, President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Mark Esper suggested that eastern flank NATO countries on the Black Sea, including Romania, should receive an additional rotational troop presence. As the Defense Department undergoes its global force posture review, do you still believe this to be a possibility, and do you have the infrastructure to support it?
DMNC: “We hope that that’s still a possibility to deploy as [many] as possible U.S. troops. We are supporting very much the rotational presence of the U.S. troops in our country. We have discussed with U.S. European Command, have discussed with the U.S. Secretary of Defense, I hope as soon as possible to have bilateral discussions through the new secretary of defense in order to discuss the details of these issues. But I would like to underline that Romania has already, together with United States, developed at least two big military infrastructures, and … more than $100 million have been designated to develop the infrastructure.
“The MK air base … has demonstrated to be very efficient during the operation in Afghanistan, also in Iraq. It has the possibility to deploy forces not only in Eastern Europe but also in Eurasia/Middle East and so on and so forth so that by having it right now, it just demonstrated that it is going to be a very strong pillar for the NATO eastern flank security plans.”
