Parliament approves set up of Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East

The plenary meeting of Parliament approved on Thursday, at President Klaus Iohannis' proposal, the establishment of the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East, as a military unit, at the Sibiu garrison, with a temporary deployment to the Bucharest garrison.

A number of 381 senators and deputies voted in favour of Parliament Decision for the set up of the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East, and 3 abstained.

"Because of the radical changes of the international security environment, one of the most important decisions taken at the NATO Summit in Brussels in June 2018 was to adjust NATO Command Structure by highlighting the strategic importance of the Black Sea region for the security of the Euro-Atlantic space and the need to increase the allied forward presence in this region. In this context and based on the international commitments made by Romania, our country offered to host on land a multinational command and control capability - the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East (HQ MNC-SE), to be put at NATO's disposal, as an integrating element of the national and allied defence plans, a proposal approved by the North-Atlantic Council in June 2019," the head of state's letter sent to Parliament shows.

President Iohannis mentions in the quoted document that in this context, the National Defence Ministry has been mandated to inform NATO political and military authorities, allies and strategic partners regarding Romania's demarches to establish the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East in view of supporting, promoting and negotiating the manners in which this structure is established, operates and functions on national territory.

According to the Decision of Parliament, the Corps will have the status of an international military command subordinated on the chain of command to an allied command, outside the national command and control structure.

"The organisation, functioning, personnel employment, administration, support of the host nation, as well as other necessary detail to accomplish the mission of the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East shall be established through agreements concluded by Romania's National Defence Ministry with NATO military authorities and participating allied states. (...) The deployment of the Headquarters Multinational Corps South-East in missions outside the Romanian state territory will be done at the order of NATO military authorities," reads the Decision of Parliament adopted on Thursday.