The national defense strategy, almost completed. Nicușor Dan announces two major directions: hybrid war and corruption

The document regarding the national defense strategy of the country is almost completed, in preparation to be presented in the CSAT, President Nicușor Dan on Monday. The head of state added that it will include “Two major changes” For Romania.

Nicușor Dan has announced that the document will include two new AFP photo directions

The head of state has announced that this very important document for Romania will be adopted until November 26, when the six months have been completed as president of Romania.

“The counselor for national security, Mr. Diaconescu, has made a correspondence with all the institutions that have attributions on national security. Two correspondence files were collected and from all the opinions, which of course some of them were overlapping, elaborated a document prior to the moment, to which we will have a date, and then we will have a date, When there are the six months since my investment as president, he will be respected. ”said Nicușor Dan for ProTV news.

Two -way strategy

He stressed that this national defense strategy of the country will include two new important directions. The first refers to the hybrid war carried out by the Russian Federation, respectively the cyber attacks, the misinformation procedures and the influence of the Russians in the social networks, while the second concerns the corruption in Romania. The head of state says it takes “The frontal attack of the phenomenon of corruption”and the SRI will have to “concern” with this phenomenon.

“There are two major changes. One, that we have to look much more attention to what is called hybrid war, that is, cyber attacks, systematic misinformation procedures, influence in the space of social networks, of the Russian Federation, to say exactly with these words. So this is a part. corruption. Between information and parquet services to be very well done ”added Nicușor Dan.

The role of SRI

While the National Defense Strategy 2015–2019 treated corruption as a central element, in the document sent to Parliament in 2020 by President Klaus Iohannis theme was relegated and mentioned only, in the category “Risk”. In contrast, Nicușor Dan now proposes not only the introduction of a distinct chapter dedicated to corruption, but also the involvement of SRI in combating it, within the limits of the already existing legal provisions.

“The mechanisms must be defined very well, legally I mean. In essence, the role of the intelligence service is to produce as consistent information, so that from the moment information is transmitted to the Prosecutor's Office, the Information Service no longer has to deal with the respective matter and the Prosecutorsaid Nicușor Dan.

Asked if this means that the SRI will start transmitting information, interceptions and other things that could be taken as evidence, the president replied: “In terms of interceptions, the legislation is very clear. They can be done by the SRI, only on a national safety mandate that judges emit from the High Court, on the one hand. On the other hand, for interceptions, which are necessary in a criminal investigation, they must also be ordered by the judge, and there is no one.

“The SRI is an institution that has many skills in the area of ​​information, practical skills, not attributions, that we know that it has. There are people who know the social, political, economic and who can … by the nature of their profession, can know, access to corruption areas, to transfer to the Prosecutor's Office.”

Coordination structure that will target war

As for the hybrid war, the head of state wants all the institutions that already have duties to combat misinformation from the public space to coordinate better and to act much faster than they have done so far, under a new leadership, at the CSAT level.

“The strategy will provide for a generic response to this matter, following which, at the level of the CSAT, the operational structures will be made, that is, the teams that work together and who to coordinate.”

Asked if Romania will mention in this strategy the presence of Russia in the space of the hybrid war, he said: “Yes. And I did this, for a few weeks I said this, as I communicated publicly, there was that report of the Attorney General who discharged some of what happened in the elections of November last year and, with the subject and predicate, I said – and the Prosecutor General and I – that it was a Russian influence.”