President Nicusor Dan on Saturday said that Romania's Defence Ministry (MApN) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) will intensify, during the summer, the threat research and recognition missions so that the Romanian seaside is safe.

He said, at the end of a working session in which the incident caused by Ukrainian sea drones that exploded in the port of Constanta and off the Black Sea coast was analysed, that, in order to increase security in the Black Sea, Romania expects additional equipment from NATO.

'How sure, how safe will we be if we come to the Black Sea on the Romanian seaside this summer? And here the answers : on the one hand, as I said, on June 10 we will have a discussion at NATO, and we are waiting for additional equipment. On the other hand, both the Ministry of Defence, the Army, and the Ministry of Interior, the Border Police will supplement, during this summer, the crews that carry out research missions, to recognise possible threats. Thirdly, there is, following recent diplomatic contacts, a constant dialogue with Ukraine and a form of protocol was already envisaged to include this type of events and, as a last argument, there is a war that, unfortunately, started more than four years ago. As a side effect of this war, we had mines and sea drones that entered the territorial waters and reached the Romanian shore and were not victims because, with the equipment they have, the state institutions acted accordingly,' the President said.

He added that 'on June 10, at Romania's request, there will be a NATO session dedicated to the Black Sea in which we will discuss together with our allies the general context of the Black Sea, these new threats at the level of the Black Sea, and also the threats coming from aerial drones.' AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Cristian Lupascu; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)