Romania will send 100 soldiers to Afghanistan

Another 100 Romanian soldiers will join in 2010 the over 1,000 militaries already sent to Afghanistan. Romania will analyse the possibility of increasing its contribution in this country, temporary Foreign Affairs minister Catalin Predoiu declared during the NATO meeting of Foreign ministers.

„The Romanian diplomacy chief noted that Romania has a substantial presence at the operation, indicating that , after the NATO Summit in Bucharest from April 2008, the Romanian contribution doubled, consisting today in over 1,000 troops, dislocated in the Southern part of Afghanistan, which will be supplemented in 2010 with another 100 persons”, a Romanian Foreign Affairs (MAE) report shows.

„After the Secretary General requesting allies to increase the ISAF contribution alongside USA, The Romanian minister mentioned that Romania would analyse the possibility of increasing its contribution in Afghanistan in the spirit if the allied solidarity and in conformity with the national decision evaluations and procedures. Additionally, the temporary Foreign Affairs minister underlined the importance of the civil reconstruction perspective and, in this context, he indicated the coordination necessity of the allied efforts with those of the European Union in this domain”, the communiqué goes on.

The US allies promised reinforcements of at least 7,000 militaries for Afghanistan, the NATO general secretary Andres Fogh Rasmussen assured in Brussels on Friday.

The NATO ministerial reunion comes only several days after Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that 30,000 additional soldiers will speed their transfer to Afghanistan to combat the Talibans and asked the NATO allies to send reinforcements.