Romanian Army Chief Warns Country Must Be Ready For Putin

Romania urgently needs to adopt a legal framework that would allow civilian volunteers to pursue military training as the country need to be better prepared in case Russia's war against Ukraine spreads, the NATO member's new army chief has told RFE/RL.

"Yes, the population of Romania, like the entire population of the European Union, of Europe, must be concerned," General Gheorghita Vlad told RFE/RL's Romanian Service in an interview on February 1.

"Personally, though not necessarily as a career soldier, I consider that the Russian Federation will not stop there [in Ukraine]. If it wins in Ukraine, its next main target will be Moldova. We'll see tensions in the Western Balkans as well. I'm more than convinced that [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin will escalate his policies in the immediate future."

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, bringing war right up to Romania's northern and Black Sea borders.

Following the Russian invasion, NATO beefed up its effectiveness in Europe and established four more multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.

The battlegroup in Romania, under the framework of France, consists of troops from Belgium, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, and the United States.

In January last year, the Pentagon decided to extend by at least nine months the deployment of some 4,000 U.S. troops to southeast Romania.

Pointing to the beefed-up NATO presence in Romania, President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu poured cold water on Vlad's comments.

"Romania was never better protected than it is now, as a NATO member state," Iohannis said on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels.

Ciolacu added that while issuing warnings is part of the role of the army chief, "there is no risk for Romania to be involved into any war right now. Romania has never been safer."

"It's extremely important that we are part of NATO, and one can see that forces from all over Europe and most importantly, from the United States have been deployed on Romanian soil. Let's calm down, Romania is not going to war at all," Ciolacu said.

Romania canceled mandatory military service in 2007, three years after joining NATO in March 2004, and established a professional army and a reservist corps.

Vlad said a law drafted by the Defense Ministry is currently in both chambers of parliament and would most likely be debated after this year's several rounds of local, parliamentary, and presidential elections.

"Among other things, we want to introduce a fixed-term voluntary military service," Vlad said, adding that the program would be separate from professional soldiers but participants would still get paid.

"We are aiming for the age segment between 18-35 years old regardless of sex, nationality or religion, young people who want to wear the military uniform. We should pay this type of service and train the participants in the basic rules of war."

Gheorghita said such a program is needed since Romania's reservist corps is aging and would not be able to face the challenges of a military conflict.

"Imagine a 50-year-old person carrying an 80-liter military backpack," he said.

Romania, a key NATO member on the alliance's southeastern flank that has a 650-kilometer border with Ukraine, currently has an 80,000-strong professional army.

Gheorghita, who took the helm of Romania's military in November, says that number is insufficient in the current geopolitical climate and it should be beefed up by 50 percent.

"An adequate number for a professional Romanian Army should be around 120,000," he said.