President Traian Basescu: Romania will send King Ferdinand frigate with a 205 people crew in the Mediterranean to block any suspect ships transporting arms 

Romania’s National Defense Council decided Romania’s involvement in the Libyan conflict with frigate King Ferdinand and with two officers of naval forces, Romanian President Traian Basescu declared. The government needs to allocate 4.5 million euro to operate 3 months in the Mediterranean Sea.

Here are his statements:

• On March 20 the operations plan for embargo imposition on arm selling to Libya was imposed. The plans of operations regarding the air exclusion area were also approved. 

• Today, at 4 PM NATO approved the execution directive for the imposition of embargo against Libya. Once the directive is approved, the operation in implemented.  

• Romania’s contribution to accelerate the transition process in Afghanistan was also analyzed. The National Defense Council decided to supplement Romania’s constables by 66 to train public order forces.  

• The great beneficiaries of Libyan oil resources are Italy, France, Great Britain and the US. We’d better give the impression that we are ready to understand elementary things.  

• They do not need a war to receive what they already have. 

• The intervention is for the protection of civilians against a political leader that is killing own subjects. Also, when talking about Libya one must take into account that it is a population with many tribes.  

• The frigate will block any suspect ships that might transport arms to Libya. 

• We are part of the operations at NATO’s request. The ship will be ready to leave in 30 days.  

• We need to find resources to implement the National Defense Council decision and respect Romania’s commitment to NATO. 

• In the National Defense Council there are members like the Finance minister and the Prime Minister . For the ship to operate 3 months in the Mediterranean Sea, there are needed 4.5 million euro.