Britain and security in the Black Sea
Britain will deploy Eurofighter Typhoon multirole combat aircraft for NATO missions in the Black Sea area, that are to be stationed in Romania for four months beginning May this year.
Corina Cristea, 28.03.2017, 13:17
Security in the Black Sea area, which in the past years has had a dynamics imposed mainly by Russia’s military actions, continues to be NATO’s priority. Romania, that has been a member of this alliance since 2004, is strongly committed to supporting NATO in this respect. “The Black Sea is a bridge that connects two continents. It is strategically important and hotly contested. For NATO, having a strong presence in the region is perhaps more important now than ever.”
This is how the Alliance explained its stand as regards this region in a post on its official Facebook page a year ago, also mentioning the challenging and tensioned context marked by security imbalances and hybrid threats. Back then Bucharest assumed a daring strategic initiative — a project providing for the deployment of a NATO fleet at the Black Sea. “Its purpose would be one of defence and deterrence. It’s all about naturally beefing up an allied ground presence, which we conceive as part of a defence and deterrence stance,” Romania’s Defence Ministry Mihnea Motoc explained at the time. Only Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria, all NATO members and Black Sea riparian, could be part of this fleet, in keeping with the Montreux Convention which stipulates that a foreign warship cannot station more than 21 days in the Black Sea waters.
Besides this initiative, Romania is getting more actively involved in an increasing number of military drills – several hundreds — aimed at boosting interoperability among allied forces. Such a drill is the one underway this month in Cape Midia, southern Romania, which has brought together 12 hundred troops from Romania and the US. During the exercise, ground, sea and airborne troops simulated the liberation of a military base in southeastern Romania, which according to the scenario had been attacked by paramilitary groups.
Britain’s decision to send four Typhoon fighter jets to Romania for air police missions on NATO’s southern flank is part of the measures aimed at increasing security in the area. According to the British Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, the fighter jets are to be stationed for 4 months at the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in southern Romania and will patrol the Black Sea alongside local jets.
(Translated by Daniel Bilt)
