Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu said on Monday that members of the defense committees in Parliament have given a favorable opinion to the purchase by Romania of a light corvette from Turkey.

„There was a meeting of the joint defense committees of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies (…) to obtain approval for the acquisition of a light corvette, which we are going to acquire from Turkey. It is a procedure started last year through which the Romanian Army will take a light corvette, which is ready, it is produced in Turkey, it is a government-to-government acquisition, a corvette from the surplus of the Turkish army, with modern, NATO-interoperable equipment, a corvette that the Romanian Army badly needs. (…) At the end of the discussion with the committee members, we obtained a unanimous opinion for this acquisition”, Mosteanu said at the Palace of Parliament.

He added that the Black Sea must remain a sea of peace, and this will happen „only by showing that we are well equipped and continuing the joint missions we have with NATO allies”.

„The value of this corvette, the price is documented by colleagues from the Ministry of Defense, 223 million euros excluding VAT. Above this price, the costs for equipment, missiles and other additional equipment will come; the corvette will be armed additionally to the standard equipment it has”, the minister of Defense mentioned.

AGERPRES