Macron arrives in Romania to inspect the troops deployed at the gates of Ukraine

INA-  sources 

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Tuesday evening in Romania to inspect the 500 French soldiers deployed in this country since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, before a support visit to Moldova on Wednesday and another possible visit to Kyiv. 

Before leaving France, the president explained that the purpose of his visit was to “support our soldiers (…) who were mobilized within the framework of NATO to protect our borders in the east of the European Union and to avoid the expansion of the war.” 

It is Macron’s first trip to southeastern Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, “spreading geopolitical and economic chaos,” he said. 

His much-anticipated visit to Ukraine may take place later this week, accompanied by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, according to media in Berlin and Rome. This information was not confirmed by the French presidency, explaining that “nothing has been decided” at this stage. 

Macron, accompanied by Foreign Ministers Catherine Colonna and Defense Minister Sebastien Locorno, arrived at 8 pm at the Mikhail Kogalcinero base near Constanta, the major Romanian port on the Black Sea, which has become more strategic since the war began. 

Like the Baltic states or Poland, “Romania is on the front lines,” too, as the Elysee said. 

After he was received by Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Chiuca and a number of senior Romanian officials, the French president will meet the forces of the “Eagle” mission, which was launched as part of NATO’s reinforcements for its “deterrent and defensive position on the eastern flank of Europe.” 

France, a member of this operation, deploys 500 soldiers, including 350 ground forces from various units, forming a “spearhead battalion” with 300 Belgian soldiers to be replaced by the Dutch in the coming months. 

On Wednesday morning, Romanian President Klaus Johannes will arrive at the base, and Macron will send a “very clear message of our commitment to NATO allies and European partners,” according to the French presidency, which stresses the “very large investment” that this commitment represents.

Especially since France recently deployed a new generation surface-to-air defense system there.
Since the end of February, “we succeeded in becoming an operational force very quickly,” declared the battalion commander, Colonel Vincent Mengue, praising the excellent cooperation with the Belgian soldiers, as well as with the approximately 2,000 American soldiers present at the base. 

This mission will continue to be augmented, with a total of 1,000 troops and Leclerc tank reinforcements by the end of the year. 

On Wednesday afternoon, Macron will meet in Chişinău, President of Moldova Maya Sandu, with whom he developed a “relationship of trust” after receiving her three times in Paris since February 2021. 

He is the first French president to visit this country since Jacques Chirac in 1998, and Macron and Catherine Colonna will express “support in the clearest way possible” for this former Soviet republic, which was particularly affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which shares a border with it. 

To this end, France financially and financially assists Moldova, which shows “exceptional solidarity” in receiving Ukrainian refugees, as more than 480,000 people have gone to it and 80,000 are still there.
 
Moldova, with a population of 2.6 million and one of the poorest countries in Europe, submitted on March 3 an application to join the European Union, along with Ukraine and Georgia. This is what the European Commission will decide by the end of the week before it will be discussed during the European Summit on June 23-24 in Brussels. 

During her visit to Paris in May, President Sandow publicly welcomed Macron’s “initiative” to create a European political group that, according to her, would allow her country to “accelerate” its accession to the European Union.

source: Middle East 24