BALTICA 07 Romanian Detachment ended the three months mission within the NATO led Air Police Service in the Baltic States. During the ceremony occurred today, October 31, at Siauliai Air Base, in the presence of the Lithuanian Defense Minister, Juozas Olekas, the Romanian Detachment gave their mandate to the Portuguese Detachment.

Officials from Romania, Portugal and the Baltic States have participated in the ceremony. Romania was represented by the Romanian Ambassador in the Baltic States, Dumitru Tokay, the commander of the 2nd Joint Operational Command, Lieutenant General Florian Pinta, and the commander Octavian Nitulescu, deputy commander of the 71st Air Base.

This occasion, the commander of the Romanian Detachment, Captain Commander Laurentiu Chirita, handed, symbolically, the key of the Baltic States' air space, to the commander of the Portuguese Detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Paulino Honrado.

The two MiG 21 LanceRs' take off marked the official end of the mission for the Romanian Detachment and the static show presented the F 16 as the beginning of the mission for the Portuguese Detachment in the Baltic States.

MoD Press Office