Germany will deploy four Eurofighter planes to Romania to support NATO’s air policing mission starting at the end of November. The decision comes a few weeks after the Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube. The attacks, carried out right next to the Romanian border, as well as the remains of drones found in Romania, have increased the security risks for the military alliance whose members have a mutual defense commitment. In September, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described the Russian strikes near the border as „destabilizing,” even though there were no indications that Russia intended to strike a NATO member. The German air forces have previously supported NATO’s air policing mission in Romania, in the context in which the alliance strengthened its military presence along the eastern flank, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022.
