MILITARY – The first shipment of French military equipment to join the NATO battle group deployed to Cincu, in central Romania, reaches the country on Sunday, the defence ministry announced. A second convoy, comprising a Leclerc main battle tank company, is set to arrive in November. The NATO Battle Group Forward Presence in Romania (BGFP) was created in May by transforming the Allied multinational elements of the NATO Response Force deployed to our country. Upon France’s proposal to take over the framework-nation role, the French battalion deployed to Romania, considered the Spearhead of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), built up the BGFP on our national territory by integrating, on rotational basis, Belgian and Dutch troops. BGFP contributes to the increase of the Romanian military cooperation with France and, implicitly, to the consolidation of the Euro-Atlantic space security on the Eastern Flank. Cooperation with the strategic partners and the deployment of relevant combat structures on national territory contribute to the increase of defence and deterrence capacity in the context of the Ukraine war and the Black Sea region crisis, the defence ministry explains.
