Nicușor Dan's conclusions after the meeting with Mark Rutte. What measures will Romania intensify?

President Nicușor Dan published a message on Wednesday, after the talks in Bucharest with the Secretary General of NATO, in which he announced some of the conclusions of his meeting with Mark Rutte. “We will intensify measures to strengthen our defense and deterrence position,” announced the head of state.

“Today I welcomed the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, on the occasion of his first visit to Romania. I had wide-ranging discussions with Mark (Rutte) about the security environment, especially about the eastern flank and the Black Sea region. We will intensify measures to strengthen our defense and deterrence position,” President Dan said, in the message published on his account on the X social network.

“In this sense, the Eastern Sentry initiative represents an important step towards the significant strengthening of the Alliance's vigilance activities in Romania and along the entire eastern flank. This Alliance operation aims to provide a gradual response to the threat posed by drones entering NATO's airspace, while ensuring a firm reaction to any other type of threat in the airspace,” added the head of state.

Other clarifications made by Nicușor Dan after the meeting with Mark Rutte:

• “I appreciate Mark's determination to bring more allied capabilities to Romania when needed through Eastern Sentry.
• We also emphasized the need to continue to pay attention to protecting critical infrastructure and addressing hybrid threats and cyber security.
• Romania will continue to make its contribution to transatlantic security, as we agreed at our last summit in The Hague. Collective defense remains at the heart of our Alliance. #WeAreNATO (#WeAreNATO, no).“

The head of NATO, Mark Rutte, was received on Wednesday at the Cotroceni Palace by the president Nicușor Dan. The two had talks and an official lunch, and then held joint press statements.

“Whoever attacks Romania, the whole of NATO will come to your rescue”, said the Secretary General of NATO, in the press conference together with Nicușor Dan, at the end of the discussions at the Cotroceni Palace.

“You have your army, of course, but if an attack will take place from anywhere, be it from Russia or from anywhere, an attack on NATO or on Romania, not only the Eastern Sentry will help you, not only the forces from the forward presence will defend you, the whole NATO will come to your rescue, with the F-35 fleet, with the ground troops at full capacity. That's how NATO works. We make sure that we defend every centimeter of allied territory,” said Rutte.

He said this unity makes NATO “invincible”. “That's why I don't even think anyone will try to defeat us,” Rutte added.

Asked by journalists about the recent withdrawal of American troops from Romania, the head of NATO emphasized that troop adjustments are not a singular fact, they have taken place in the past, but the American administration maintains its commitment to NATO. For his part, Nicușor Dan pointed to the Eastern Sentinel program, a military operation that involves a flexible mission that NATO is starting to strengthen the eastern flank.

“The Eastern Sentinel program means, on the one hand, more military capabilities, on the other hand, it means people when needed. We have an example now, this big military exercise in Cincu with over 5,000 allied soldiers practicing types of responses to threats precisely to deter,” the Romanian president emphasized.

Nicușor Dan spoke about a common approach regarding the Eastern Flank, “because for NATO and for Europe the obvious threat at the moment is in the Eastern Flank”.

After the meeting with President Nicușor Dan, the head of NATO went to the Government, where he had a meeting with Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, and then he went to the Parliament to talk with other Romanian officials, such as Mircea Abrudean (President of the Senate) and Sorin Grindeanu (President of the Chamber of Deputies).