PARIS (TASS): France is ready, if necessary, to send several hundred French troops to Romania as part of a possible expansion of the NATO mission. French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly announced this on Saturday on the radio station France Inter.
“We are ready to deploy our military in Romania – a country bordering Ukraine – with the appropriate decision of NATO,” Parly said. “We are talking about several hundred soldiers,” she specified.
The head of the French defense department recalled that on Thursday she visited Bucharest to discuss this issue. On the same day, a group of experts from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces arrived in Romania to assess the possible expansion of the NATO mission in this country. “We discussed this issue (sending the military – TASS note) with our Romanian partners,” she said. “In the near future we should have a meeting with NATO members on this matter,” Parley added.
She recalled that last week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his readiness to “commit to new missions like EFP [enhanced forward presence,” enhanced presence at the forefront “], in particular in Romania, if such a decision is made in NATO”. The Minister noted the concern of Paris with the situation around Ukraine and stressed the need to de-escalate tensions.
Recently, Ukraine and several Western states have again begun to accuse Russia of allegedly preparing for aggression in the Donbass, where since 2014 an internal armed conflict between Kiev and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics that have declared their independence has continued. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov emphasized that such statements are empty and unfounded escalation of tension, and Russia poses no threat to anyone.
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