General Lanata visited Romania July 20th to 22nd, welcomed by Mr. Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă, Minister of Defence, Mr. Bogdan Aurescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, Chief of Defence Staff.
The visit featured discussions on Romania’s initiatives in the region, the establishment of the South-East Multinational Corps Command, and the commitments made by the Romanian armed forces to NATO: a good opportunity for Romanian authorities to show the efforts and concerns of the Romanian armed forces in the south-eastern area of the Alliance.
“Romania is a highly valued Ally, making an important contribution to Alliance’s collective defence, and I was impressed by the Armed forces’ professionalism” said General Lanata during his visit.
The Warfare Development area, which is the essence of NATO’s transformation – focusing on innovation, emerging and disruptive technologies, modernization, NATO Defence Planning Process, and Allied Command Transformation’s contribution to NATO operations and missions – was also reviewed; Allied Command Transformation leads the development of the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept, which will provide a Warfare Development framework for the Alliance for a 20 year time horizon. It will inform the military input to Political Guidance, providing coherence, effectiveness and efficiency to the development of the Alliance’s Military Instrument of Power, leveraging the connecting tissue that makes the Alliance’s capability greater than the sum of its individual parts.
In General Lanata’s words: “We need to maintain dialogue about the current and future security challenges. Allied Command Transformation, as responsible for preparing and overseeing the continuing transformation of Alliance forces to ensure NATO’s warfighting capabilities remain relevant, plays a key role.”
Allied Command Transformation brings efficiency and coherence to the development of NATO forces, as well as, medium- and long-term planning: leading large parts of the NATO Defence Planning Process and writing the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept, Allied Command Transformation turns political guidance into capability commitments by all NATO Member Nations and frames the path for coherent warfare development for the Alliance.
General Lanata’s visit concluded with a demonstrative tour of the Romanian Navy and Air Force capabilities; an opportunity for Romanian aviators to celebrate Romanian Air Force and aviation. The minister of national defence also awarded General Lanata with the Emblem of Honour of the Romanian Armed Forces.
