Emmanuel Macron and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis review Romanian troops present at the Mihail-Kogalniceanu NATO airbase in Romania, June 15, 2022. LAURENCE GEAI / MYOP
The picture looks like a painting where nothing is moving. Hundreds of boats frozen in Romanian waters are waiting to reach the port of Sulina in southeastern Romania. This is where the Danube flows 2,850 kilometers from its source in Germany, in the Black Forest, into the Black Sea. In this port, which is 170 kilometers from the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, the traffic jam is blocked daily by the Russian army. The Moscow-led war in Ukraine is worrying Romania, a country at the eastern end of NATO and the European Union (EU).
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Thanks to its membership in the Atlantic Alliance, which it joined in 2004, Romania has been able to secure its airspace and strengthen its military assets. But it only has an old submarine, which does not allow it to ensure its sea defenses. Because of this, Bucharest turned to France to acquire submarines.
“I have signed a memorandum of understanding with the French defense minister to purchase Scorpene submarines and helicopters,” Defense Minister Vasile Dincu said on July 19. At the moment we are planning to acquire two submarines and two helicopters. We are forced to do this because the Black Sea is becoming more and more crowded with “sharks”. So far we have managed to defuse around 20 mines in our territorial waters from the conflict area between Russia and Ukraine. »
Six bases are available to NATO
The Scorpene submarines are manufactured by the French Naval Group, which signed an agreement with the Romanian government back in 2019 to build four corvettes and modernize two frigates in Romania. “The Scorpene submarines can detect any suspicious movement without being detected themselves,” explains Rear Admiral Constantin Ciorobea. They can transmit the coordinates of an enemy ship to the missile batteries located on the coast and allow for very effective action. »
Given the Russian Federation’s expansionist ambitions, Romania is experiencing an unprecedented military flare-up. Bucharest has decided to buy 32 F-16 fighter jets, and according to President Klaus Iohannis, the Romanian army is also interested in the F-35, America’s newest aviation security aircraft. The Mihail Kogalniceanu military base, 185 kilometers east of Bucharest, has 2,000 American soldiers plus 500 French, several hundred Dutch, Italians and Germans and 250 Belgians. This operation is part of a NATO rapid reaction force commanded by France.
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