French Defense Equipment Convoys Arrive in Romania

Two convoys carrying French defence equipment arrived in Romania Sunday evening at the Nadlac border crossing point in Arad County.

By reorganizing NATO multinational components of the NATO Response Force stationed in Romania, BGFP Romania was created in May. The vehicles will add to the NATO Battle Group Forward Presence (BGFP) equipment deployed in Cincu.

Mission “Balaur,” named after the eponymous mythological figure from Romanian folklore, is a logistical operation to transport equipment on wheels over a distance of more than 2,000 kilometres from the French base at Mourmelon-le-Grande to Cincu.

The French battalion stationed in Romania, the head of NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), forms the BGFP on the country’s soil by incorporating, on a rotating basis, troops from Belgium and the Netherlands in response to France’s proposal to assume the role of a NATO framework nation.

According to a Facebook post from the Romanian Defense Ministry, the first convoy was made up of light armoured fighting vehicles, and the second convoy was made up of heavily armoured fighting vehicles. The two convoys were met by French Colonel Alexandre de Feligonde of the NATO Battle Group and Colonel Tiberiu Cojocaru of the Headquarters Multinational Division South-East.