NATO member countries agreed and implemented an increased allied presence in the Black Sea region right from 2014, after the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia, and before and after the day the Russian invasion began in Ukraine, we have significantly increased our presence, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Tuesday at the end of the first day of the meeting of the NATO foreign ministers, hosted by the Palace of the Parliament, Agerpres reports.

When we realized last autumn that Russia was planning a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, we increased our presence in the Black Sea region. I was also at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base in Romania, I think in February, and I saw how the USA and the allies brought more troops. Now, France leads a battle group and we moved from four to eight battle groups [in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania plus Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria]. Before and after the day of the invasion, we increased our presence significantly, with various types of capabilities, and we made important decisions from all allies, the same as in Madrid, to increase our presence, to commit troops, prepositioned hardware and a combination of a forward presence, so that our presence in the Black Sea region is more solid. We are working on the details of many of these decisions, but many of these things have already happened. I also want to emphasize the fact that, being prepared for the invasion, even on the morning of the invasion, we activated the defense plans. The Allied Supreme Command has been given the authority to move forces into this region when needed and that has been done to a large extent so far, but if necessary additional forces can be brought in on land and at sea,’ the senior Allied official told a press conference.

The NATO battle group in Romania, at battalion level but which can be increased, if necessary, to brigade level, is based in Cincu and its command is provided by France.

On Wednesday, on the second day of the NATO ministerial meeting in Bucharest, there will be a session of the North Atlantic Council with Finland and Sweden, countries invited to join the organization. Afterwards, a session will be held in which the heads of diplomacy from Bosnia, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova, partner countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, will join the discussions.

Agerpres