Parliament approves Romania's participation in Gallant Phoenix mission in Jordan, Sentinel in Persian, Oman, Aden gulfs

Parliament on Thursday approved the requests of President Klaus Iohannis regarding Romania's participation in the Gallant Phoenix mission in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and in the Sentinel Operation, respectively, in the Persian, Oman and Aden gulfs.

According to the decision approved by Parliament in this respect, Romania is going to participate in the Sentinel Operation with 10 militaries, General Staff personnel, and in the Gallant Phoenix mission - a coalition type of mission carried out in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan under the leadership of the United States of America - with a complete military and civil team, personnel from the intelligence field.

In the case of the Gallant Phoenix mission, the Ministry of National Defence will sign a technical understanding with the US Defence Department to establish the participation and cooperation framework. MApN (Ministry of National Defence) and the MAE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) will initiate the negotiation process and they will sign an agreement regarding the status of the forces for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The personnel participating in these missions will have the technical equipment and the necessary weapons specific to each theatre of operations, with the financial resources to be ensured from the budget of the MApN for 2020.

According to the President, the Gallant Phoenix mission, initiated in 2019, involving 27 states, has the role of "collecting and analyzing relevant information from open sources and from the exploitation of captured materials, to facilitate the actions of agents and services with responsibilities in law enforcement against extremist violent organizations, networks and people who support their work."

Also, "Operation Sentinel is a multinational maritime structure designed to improve surveillance and ensure freedom of navigation on key maritime routes in the Middle East, being a coalition mission, with the general objective of neutralizing and eliminating threats to free navigation, through a comprehensive and sustained strategy," is also shown in the president's request.