Military ceremony upon completion of Romanian Army mission in Afghanistan - on July 21

The military ceremony organized upon the completion of the Romanian Army's mission in Afghanistan will take place on July 21, in the Arch of Triumph Square in Bucharest, informs the Ministry of National Defense (MApN).

According to the cited source, on this occasion, pedestrian detachments representing the military structures of the Romanian Army that performed missions in this theater of operations, starting from 2002 until June of this year will march under the Arch of Triumph, agerpres reports.

The last Romanian detachment from the Afghanistan theater of operations, consisting of 140 soldiers, returned to the country at the end of June.

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In the 19 years of participating with military structures in this theater of operations, 27 Romanian soldiers lost their lives in combat actions, and over 200 were injured.

Romania has participated with troops in Afghanistan since 2002, both in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in the spirit of solidarity with the American strategic partner and for consolidating its national position as an allied partner, the Ministry of National Defense further mentions.

In January 2002, the first troops of the Romanian military - a platoon of military police, a C130 Hercules aircraft and liaison officers were deployed in Afghanistan as part of Operation ISAF, and in July 2002, the first Romanian infantry battalion was deployed in the Afghanistan theater of operations, in a combat mission outside the national territory after the Second World War.

Since 2002 and until now, over 32,000 Romanian Army servicemen have participated in the mission in Afghanistan, in rotation every six months, both in brigade-level command and control elements, as well as in structures at the level of battalion, company, platoon, Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams (OMLT), detachments within the Special Operations Forces, teams of Afghanistan National Army instructors, Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) subunits.

Also participating in the missions were elements of logistical support from the Joint Logistics Command, structures from the Communications and Informatics Command, structures from the Romanian Naval Forces, general staff personnel assigned to NATO and multinational commands. The Romanian Air Force exercised command over Kabul International Airport (KAIA) in two different missions.

The missions of the Romanian military in the theater of operations in Afghanistan were coordinated by the Joint Forces Command within the Ministry of National Defense.

Recently, Romania has been one of the most important contributing states with troops to the Resolute Support Mission (RSM), with over 600 deployed soldiers, and in the last six years participation in RSM has been the main priority regarding the Romanian Army's contribution to operations outside the the territory of the Romanian state.