Two convoys carrying French defence equipment arrived in Romania on Sunday evening at the Nadlac border crossing point in Arad County, according to Agerpres.

The first convoy was composed of light armoured fighting vehicles and the second of heavy armoured fighting vehicles, the Romanian Defence Ministry (MApN) wrote in a Facebook post.

The two convoys were met by French Colonel Alexandre de Feligonde of the NATO Battle Group together with Colonel Tiberiu Cojocaru of the Headquarters Multinational Division South – East.

The vehicles will add to the equipment of the NATO Battle Group Forward Presence (BGFP) deployed in Cincu.

The logistical operation to deploy equipment from the Mourmelon-le-Grande base in France to Cincu on wheels over a distance of more than 2,000 kilometres began on October 18 and is called Operation „Balaur”, inspired by the eponymous mythological character from Romanian legends.

BGFP Romania was established in May by transforming NATO multinational elements of the NATO Response Force deployed in the country.

Upon France’s proposal to take over the role of a NATO framework nation, the French battalion deployed in Romania, considered the spearhead of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), forms the BGFP on the national soil integrating, on a rotational basis, troops from Belgium and the Netherlands.

Agerpres