Interoperability at high altitude between Romanian and Belgian militaries

Piatra Neamț, in north-eastern Romania, hosts training exercise bringing together Romanian and Belgian military.

Agenția Media a Armatei, 11.02.2026, 14:00

The soldiers of the 634th Infantry Battalion from Piatra Neamț have conducted an international exercise together with their Belgian allies from the NATO Battle Group in Cincu. The training session took place at the training camp in Tarcău Mountains, in Neamț County, (north-eastern Romania), where the soldiers of the two contingents carried out missions specific to living and fighting in a mountainous environment. The main goal of the exercise was the joint training of the soldiers from the two countries, in order to increase the level of interoperability, cohesion and reaction capacity within multinational operations. The participants were put through intense physical and mental effort, including marching for some 20 kilometers, up to an altitude of 1,768 meters.

For the Belgian military, this exercise was a first, given that the highest geographical point in Belgium is only 694 meters. Lieutenant Elliot led the Belgian detachment at the training. He explained: “It is an extremely beneficial experience to meet people from this part of Romania and to train in the mountainous environment. It is a terrain in which we have never trained before, but the cooperation went very well. Being NATO armies, the Romanians and the Belgians use similar tactics and procedures. We learned a lot about mountain fighting, how to move in the mountains and how to employ the right tactics. For us, it was one of the first experiences of this type, because in Belgium we do not have big differences in elevation. It is a really interesting experience and we are very happy to be here”.

During the activities, the soldiers of the two armies exchanged experiences, thus contributing to a better understanding of the procedures and how to act in an operational context, in the spirit of allied cooperation. Mathilde, a platoon sergeant in the Belgian Army, who also took part in the training, told us that she was very pleased with what she found in Romania:

“It was a very interesting week, which is very good for us. We appreciate this type of exercise very much, and this is also the reason why we are in Romania. It gives us the opportunity to collaborate and exchange experiences with our NATO colleagues and other partner nations. We work, broadly speaking, in the same way, considering that both countries are part of the North Atlantic Alliance. I am convinced that we will learn many new things and, at the same time, we will learn from each other.”

Also in Piatra Neamț, a British military advisory and training team from the British Military Advisory Training Team conducted, for four weeks, a leadership and command course for young commanders, an advanced training program in the field of military leadership. The course targeted microstructure commanders from the 15th Mechanized Brigade and aimed to strengthen command skills, decision-making and effective coordination of subordinates in complex operational environments.

We met here Sergeant Major David Krejci, a member of the British-Czech joint military training and advisory team, who is at his third posting in Romania: “I feel very good here, in Piatra Neamț. The soldiers are receptive and are in good spirits. They want to train, they want to learn. So, it’s been a very good experience. I was in Cluj-Napoca for a month, I was in Topraisar, near Constanța, and now I’m in Piatra Neamț, but I have also been to Iași. I like Romania, the culture and also the food here. I am always happy to visit Romania and discover new things”.