State Secretary Mircea Dusa and the chief of Defence Staff General Nicolae Ciuca participated in the certification ceremony of the British Royal Air Force Detachment that will carry out Enhanced Air Police missions on the eastern flank of NATO. The ceremony took place at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base on Friday, April 27th.

The state secretary stated that the first reassurance measures on the eastern flank were taken after the Wales NATO Summit, when they established the rotation principle of the permanent NATO troops presence.

Today's ceremony took place in the presence of the British ambassador to Romania and the representatives of NATO and the British Royal Air Force.

The British detachment consisting of about 160 troops (pilots and technical staff) will carry out Enhanced Air Police missions with four Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft over May 1st to August 31st 2018, along with MiG-21 LanceR aircraft and troops of the Romanian Air Force. The four British aircraft landed at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base on Friday, April 23rd.

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The enhanced air police mission under NATO command is a collective defence mission at peace, meant to ensure the integrity of the Alliance air space.

The air police missions carried out jointly will contribute to the development of the reaction and deterrence capability, as well as to the strengthening of the inter-operability between the Romanian and British air forces.

The deployment of the aircraft of the British Royal Air Forces in Romania is part of the implementation of the Action Plan for ensuring the NATO's operational capability on the eastern flank of the Alliance, in the northern area, and also in the southern area, and proves NATO's unity and determination as reaction to the security environment challenges. This is the second time a British detachment is deployed at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base for air police missions, together with FAR, with the first such detachment having been deployed over May 1st to August 31st 2017.

The Press Office