Deveselu missile shield reconfirms Romania's substantial commitment to NATO

Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) welcomes the celebration of five years since the Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense Facility at Deveselu Military Base has reached its full operational capacity, and the moment "reconfirms Romania's substantial commitment to increasing its profile inside NATO and strengthening its strategic partnership with the United States, two key coordinates of Romania's foreign policy", agerpres reports.

According to an MAE press statement, the development of NATO's ballistic missile defence capabilities "represents a transatlantic project of prime importance, while being at the same time a reconfirmation of the allied collective will to strengthen common defence and the steps of continuous adaptation to the realities in the world security environment."

MAE reiterates that NATO's missile defence system is entirely defensive, targets threats from outside the Euro-Atlantic area and reflects both the major US contribution to European security and Romania's determination to support strengthening NATO security, while being at the same time one of the essential components of NATO's collective defence and a key component of the transatlantic relationship.

The development of this system, says MAE, fully respects both the founding principle of NATO, solidarity among the Allies, by securing the indivisibility of NATO security and covering the NATO land, and the commitment of the democracies making up NATO to observing international law and strengthening security architecture in order to ensure stable and predictable international security.

"As a responsible and active NATO ally positioned on the southern side of its Eastern Flank and a strategic partner of the United States of America, Romania has been involved in this project to contribute to defence against potential ballistic missile attacks of NATO's populations, land and armed forces, in a world where the proliferation of ballistic missile threats and the interest of state and non-state actors outside the Euro-Atlantic to acquire such technologies are security challenges that cannot be ignored," Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, a former chief negotiator for Romania of the 2011 Agreement, is quoted as saying in the MAE statement.

According to the head of the Romanian diplomacy, "by hosting the Aegis Ashore facility in Deveselu, Romania has thus joined the joint efforts at NATO level, in a complicated, ever-changing international context, ensuring the consolidation of national security and collective defence capabilities at NATO level."

"Hosting and making operational the Deveselu Facility is one of the most significant landmarks in Romania's security, and also at NATO level in recent years, a project in which I had the honour to be personally involved from the beginning, by negotiating on behalf of Romania the Agreement Between the United States of America and Romania on the Deployment of the United States Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania, which 10th anniversary falls this September," said Aurescu.

Romania and the United States signed the Agreement Between the United States of America and Romania on the Deployment of the United States Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania on September 13, 2011, which entered into force on December 23, 2011, this year marking a decade from that moment.

The Missile Defence Facility was declared operational on December 18, 2015, and the inauguration ceremony, a declaration of full operational capability of the Aegis Ashore Facility at the Deveselu Base, part of NATO BMD, took place on May 12, 2016.