The use of weapons to shoot down aircraft that enter the national airspace without permission is a decision that must be taken „as a last resort,” Romania’s Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu said on Thursday after a meeting of the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT).

CSAT ruled that the decision to intercept or shoot down a military aircraft with or without a pilot or a missile that enters the national space without permission belongs to the military commander of the operation. In the case of a civil aircraft, the decision belongs to the minister of defence.

Shooting down aircraft that violate the national airspace is a decision taken „in the last resort”, Mosteanu said.

„It is also the spirit of the law, we are a country in peacetime, the spirit of the law is to use weapons as a last resort, when everything else fails,” he added.

The minister referred to the recent situation in Poland.

„In the case of Poland, for example, they took down four out of 19 drones. I don’t know how the situation would have been considered in Romania had the same thing happened in Romania. Countries need to be better equipped, better prepared. European countries are countries that have known peace for 80 years. That is reality in Europe, and it seemed that we will have eternal peace in Europe. But lo and behold: we don’t have it. But we cannot compare and, again, I insist not to compare – because we have also seen these comparisons in the public space – how Ukraine reacts and how European countries react that have various such incidents. [Ukraine] is a country at war, a country where civilians die every day, who for three years or so have been defending themselves with the help of us, their partners and all countries that have similar values,” he said.

Mosteanu also mentioned NATO membership.

„NATO has all the procedures. Advanced air policing is also in Romania, as you have seen, in our country there are now, for example, German pilots with five Eurofighters and they do air policing alongside our pilots, who do air policing on F-16s. In Poland, F-35s of the Italians were used. (…) And that shows how important NATO membership is, and how NATO works and how defence, protection and deterrence work in the spirit of NATO treaties, in the spirit of the commitment that NATO has made to protecting the population of the countries and the space of the allied countries.” AGERPRES