Bucharest, Jan 14 /Agerpres/ - Starting in January 2025 Romania has expanded its presence, with troops and military hardware, to another two NATO battle groups operating in eastern flank allied countries, specifically Slovakia (with an anti-tank detachment) and Bulgaria (with a reconnaissance detachment), while also continuing to participate in the eFP Battle Group Poland with an anti-aircraft detachment.

According to the National Defense Ministry, the decision to deploy multinational battle groups to Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary was taken at the Madrid 2022 NATO Summit, as part of enhancing collective defense measures on the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance. The new battle units were modeled after those in the Baltic States and Poland, which were set up in the aftermath of the 2016 NATO Warsaw Summit.

The battle group in Slovakia is led by Spain and includes troops from the Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia. The Bulgarian battle group is led by Italy, with contributions from Albania, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Turkey and the United States.

This supplementation of Romania's contribution to allied deterrence and defense measures complements the presence of Romanian soldiers in the battle group stationed in Poland, where the Romanian Army has been participating since 2017.

Romania's presence with over 150 soldiers and equipment in the North Atlantic Alliance battle groups reflects its firm commitment to strengthening collective defense on the eastern flank.

The National Defense Ministry mentions that the Romania NATO Battle Group has France as framework nation, and Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain as contributing states. The Bulgarian group is under the command of the Multinational Division South-East based in Bucharest.

NATO's 360-degree approach to defense and deterrence is mainly intended to ensure collective security, encompassing the three core tasks of the Alliance - deterrence and defense, crisis prevention and management, and cooperation security.

Romania currently contributes to maintaining regional and global security with over 1,000 personnel, and also participates in EU missions and operations, where it holds the command of the EU Training Mission for the Armed Forces of the Central African Republic (EUTM RCA), and is also set to take over the command of the EUFOR ALTHEA mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina - to which it is the most important contributor.

Thus, Romania will simultaneously exercise the command for two of the nine military operations and missions carried out under the aegis of the European Union's Common Security and Defence Policy to which it contributes with military personnel and equipment. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Florin Marin; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)