National Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu said on Thursday at the Cincu Training Range, on the occasion of the Distinguished Visitors Day, that the Dacian Fall 2025 (DAFA 2025), conducted on Romania's and Bulgaria's territory showed once again how strong NATO is.

'Dear Romanian soldiers and those of all nationalities, our allies, who carried out this exercise, I thank you on behalf of every Romanian for what you do for us, for us as a country, for the Alliance. Once again, you have shown how you can work together, how you can collaborate together, how you can put all the resources to work. And over 5,000 servicemen and more than 1,200 technical means participated in this exercise. It is an exercise which showed once again how strong this Alliance is, how strong NATO is. And that is thanks to you. Through such exercises and the way you operate, act, train together, you give us the possibility to rest at ease, to sleep peacefully, knowing we are protected by the strongest shield and the largest, most capable army, NATO. Thank you to each and every one of you,' Ionut Mosteanu said.

The Defence Minister thanked France, pointing out that just four days after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, 'France came here, sent troops.'

'First of all, we thank France for this exercise, because four days after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, France came here, sent troops. And since then it has been the framework nation for the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group in Romania. And around this Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group led by France, this exercise was organised, with participation from allies - France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United States, Romania of course and our neighbours south of the Danube, Bulgaria and the Battle Brigade, the Italian Battle Group stationed there. I thank each and every one of you for the way you work together. We are witnessing a period of diverse challenges, ones we would not have imagined many years ago, some major challenges for our liberal democracies, democracies we believed to be unshakable, but again and again, especially recently, we see new challenges arising,' the National Defence Minister said.

Minister Mosteanu mentioned the attacks in France ten years ago, then the war in Ukraine, pointing out that 'probably no one would have expected to see another war in Europe after the Second World War' and underscored that this is why unity is so important.

'This war will end, it will stop, peace will come, however new challenges will continue to appear at NATO's borders, at Europe's borders and that is why it is important to stand closely united, to equip ourselves better. We have decided this and each of us will improve our capabilities, so that we are prepared when one ally is in danger, so we can all act as one. And this is an important purpose of this exercise, to show that we can operate together, that we can combine our equipment, our soldiers, our command, work together as a single army. That is what has been done here, during this period, in the Dacian Fall exercises (...). I thank you very much, you have the Government's support, I thank Mr Gheorghita Vlad, the Chief of the Romanian Army, for all his support and for the way he collaborates with our allies (...). On behalf of every Romanian, I thank every soldier and I thank our allies,' National Defence Minister Mosteanu concluded. AGERPRES(RO - writing by: Dorina Matis; EN - writing by: Rodica State)