Video interview

Q: What are your expectations as a new NATO member?

Ambassador Mazuru: Let me say first that membership to NATO will be for Romania the same solid guarantee for defense and security enjoyed by all members of the Alliance in the past 55 years. This guarantee is very important for the development of a stable, democratic and prosperous Romania.

But it is not only about security. It is also about joining the family of democratic nations, nations with whom we share the same values of freedom and peace; it is about joining the group we belong to. And this means a lot for the Romanian people.

Finally, membership to NATO gives Romania the opportunity to participate actively in an organization which takes and implements the most important decisions for the security and defense of our continent. We are at the same time looking forward to bringing our contribution in shaping and adapting NATO to the new challenges we have to face.

Q: What does your country bring to NATO?

Ambassador Mazuru: Romania brings already a significant contribution. Approximately 1,600 Romanians participate as we speak in NATO operations or alongside troops belonging to NATO members in peace operations in Afghanistan, the Balkans or Iraq. Two Romanian soldiers have been recently killed in combat in Afghanistan. It is a remarkable effort showing the genuine commitment of my government to international security and defense, as well as the capacity to bring a concrete and effective contribution. Romania is aware that NATO membership means not only benefits but also obligations and responsibilities.

Secondly, the geographic location of Romania is an asset taking into account that most of the current threats emerge from South and South-East. We have the potential to strengthen, alongside our Bulgarian friends, and together with Greece and Turkey, the South-Eastern flank of NATO.

Thirdly, we will use the good relations we have with our neighbors to strengthen and project stability across NATO's borders. I am referring for instance to the Balkans, an area we would like to see integrated as soon as possible into the European and Atlantic structures - and, speaking of NATO, we strongly support, of course, the accession to NATO of Albania, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia, as well as the inclusion of Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Partnership for Peace. At the same time, we will contribute to the strengthening of NATO's cooperation with partners in the East, such as the Republic of Moldova, the Ukraine, Russia, and, across the Black Sea, with the nations in the Caucasus and Central Asia. We believe these relations are extremely important for NATO and we want to bring our specific contribution to their development.

Q: In what way will you contribute to the new military structures and missions of the Alliance?

Ambassador Mazuru: I have already touched upon our current contribution to missions of NATO or to missions where most of NATO's members are participating in (such as the one in Iraq). As I said, we intend to continue our contribution in such missions, because it is important to deal with threats where and when they arise if we don't want to deal with them in our own backyard.

We want also to participate actively in the transformation and adaptation of NATO's military capabilities, and I am referring especially to the NATO Response Force (the NRF) and to the process started in Prague, the Prague Capabilities Commitment. We will make specific contributions as we are currently adapting our own armed forces to the new challenges and security environment.

According to the commitments made through the Timetable for Completion of Reforms, document that was submitted to NATO in March 2003, Romania "intends to participate fully in NATO's military structure and collective defense planning process and is willing to commit forces and capabilities for the full range of Alliance missions".
We are fundamentally restructuring our armed forces. The new force structure will be more flexible and effective, able to provide more deployable and sustainable forces, as well as to contribute to the full range of NATO missions. By 2007, the Romanian Armed Forces will be an all-volunteer army with a military strength of 75,000 or below, including land forces, air forces and maritime forces.

Romania is prepared to contribute to Allied land, air and maritime forces. Some of these capabilities have already been used in multinational operations, together with troops belonging to NATO nations. We provide 116 troops for KFOR, 119 troops for SFOR, one infantry battalion as a SFOR/KFOR reserve, 49 military personnel and one transport aircraft C-130 B for ISAF, one infantry battalion (405 military personnel) for the operation Enduring Freedom, 804 military personnel to the Operational International Force in Iraq (one infantry battalion one engineer detachment one military police company one NBC company one special detachment). We will also continue to provide military observers and monitors for UN or OSCE missions.

Q: As a new ally, how do you think you can influence NATO's future political agenda?

Ambassador Mazuru:
For Romania it is very important to follow three core objectives.
The first one is related to maintaining NATO as the main pillar for the defense and security of Europe. NATO has been the most relevant, the most effective organization, the most successful Alliance in the past 55 years. And the fact that Europe has been a free and prosperous area for so long is the merit of NATO. We want NATO to remain what it is- this kind of pillar for the defense and security of Europe. For us it is very important to have article V as the core of the Alliance and we want to strengthen the collective defense and this main characteristic of NATO.

The second thing would be to strengthen the solidarity and the cohesion within NATO and this is as important as the military strength of the Alliance. This is what makes the Alliance so strong. We have seen what can happen if the Allies are not together and we believe that in these times the Alliance needs this cohesion and this solidarity as strongly as it needed it in the cold war era. Romania wants to act as a consensus builder from this perspective.

Finally, the third objective we will look for is to strengthen the solidity of the transatlantic link, which is again very important. We think that the transatlantic link and the presence of America in the security and defense of Europe in the past 55 years made NATO and Europe stronger and we believe that the relationship between NATO and the EU is very important. Romania is already 99% a member of NATO and will be a member of the EU, hopefully, in 2007, and we will act for the strengthening of the relations between these two crucial organizations for the defense and security of Europe.