HOW CAN ROMANIA BECOME A NATO PROVIDER FROM A NATO CONSUMER
HOW CAN ROMANIA BECOME A NATO PROVIDER FROM A NATO CONSUMER

Summary/Abstract: The war in Ukraine has triggered a number of Eastern Flank states like Poland, Hungary and the Baltic States to increase their military spending and develop their national armies in the face of more prominent threats. While Romania has increased its defense budget to 2% since 2017 and has promised to further increase it to 2.5% after the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine visible results in developing the national army are not yet present. The Romanian army is the only one in the Eastern Flank that has difficulties in providing retention among its personnel, major acquisition projects are stagnant if not postponed and while the Black Sea region is now present in the NATO Strategic Concept the Romanian Navy has been the force structure with the least investments in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to therefore address the many issues and challenges for why at this moment Romania is a NATO consumer and how through different measures, reforms and potential solutions in can translate from this role into a NATO provider that consolidates the strategic partnership in the Eastern Flank beyond its current possibilities.

• Details
• Contents