Information and Public Relations Directorate
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Tuesday, September 14, 04 Ioan Mircea Pascu, minister of National Defence participated to the opening session of the “Expeditionary Forces 2004” conference developed between September 14 and 15, 04 in Bucharest at the Intercontinental Hotel. Mister Pascu referred to the preoccupations the Ministry of National Defence has in the reform of the Armed Forces and the Romanian contribution to the NATO Response Force which now represents the vital factor of the Alliance’s process of transformation.
Minister of National Defence also stressed the fact that the new status of Romania as a NATO member determined the reconfiguration of the national defence as part of the Alliance’s collective defence, one of the most relevant aspects being the connection of the own system of air space management to the Alliance’s one.
The Ministry of National Defence pays attention to the adaptation of the process of reform to the requirements made at the Alliance’s level. The focused on domains are the planning, the endowment, the training and the use of the forces with the almost same role as that of the expeditionary forces. Among others, an important role will be the professionalisation of the Armed Forces through the step by step renouncement to the compulsory military service, the increase of the training and the improvement of the capacity of dislocation in the theaters of operations so that in the future three years the Air Force will be endowed with four more transport airplanes.
Minister Pascu stated “due to the operations developed in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan Romania proved to have trained, equiped and endowed armed forces for performing the missions in the most difficult conditions”.
Mister Pascu mentioned the Romanian contribution to NATO Response Force consists in NBC, military intelligence and radio-electronic fight subunits, forces set at the Alliance’s disposal on five months cycles.
MoND Press Office