A country bordering Ukraine and bathed by the Black Sea, Romania has acquired increasing strategic importance since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of the neighboring nation, and therefore now demands more weight in the concert of the allies. The Romanian head of state, Klaus Iohannis, is officially running for the position of secretary general of NATO, also presenting himself as the voice of the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance, of which Romania has been a part since March 2004.
“We have deep knowledge, including insight into the historic challenges facing our region, about the current security situation created by Russia’s war against Ukraine; At the same time, I believe that NATO also needs a renewal of the perspective of its mission,” Iohannis said on behalf of his country in a statement to the press last Tuesday at the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest, headquarters of the Romanian Presidency. The term of the current secretary general, the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, ends on October 1.
Klaus Iohannis, 64, president of his country since December 2014, defended his candidacy as “Romania is a pillar of stability and security in the region and it is time to assume even greater responsibility within the Euro-Atlantic leadership.” His demand for more of his role joins reproaches made by other leaders and politicians from Eastern European countries, complaining that high-level multilateral positions almost always fall to Western European names. The Estonian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, has also expressed herself in this sense.
Ioannis’ candidacy clashes with that of the technical favorite so far, Mark Rutte, 57, outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands, who has the support of the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. However, at the beginning of March, Hungary announced its veto against Rutte, although not with arguments about security, but rather because of the Dutchman’s past criticism of the ultra-conservative government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania itself have also expressed reservations about Rutte’s name.
Klaus Iohannis maintains that obtaining the general secretary of NATO is “a legitimate aspiration of a State that has undergone radical transformations in the last two decades and that could contribute with this experience to shape a new vision” of how to respond to the new security and defense threats posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Among its Atlanticist credentials, Romania exhibits its defense spending, which this year will be 2.5% of GDP, in line with what NATO asks of its members (invest a minimum of 2%). Meanwhile, the Netherlands has not met that goal for years: in 2023 it spent 1.7% of its GDP and this year it promises to reach 2.03%.
Romania hosts, with allied support, a regional training center for American F-16 fighter pilots, which in the coming months will instruct Ukrainian military personnel. It has also modernized its air force with the purchase of F-35 fighters, also American. More than 5,000 NATO soldiers are deployed in its territory, the largest contingent of allied troops on the southeastern flank of Europe, and it hosts a US anti-ballistic missile system. Its 245 kilometers of coastline, with the strategic port of Constanta and the mouth of the Danube River, give Romania a key role in the Black Sea, which also has Ukraine and Russia, as well as Georgia and two NATO members (Bulgaria). and Turkey).
The appointment of the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance requires the consensus of the 32 member countries. The current Secretary Stoltenberg, elected in 2014, had been in office for eight years – that is, two terms – when Russia invaded Ukraine. This circumstance and the lack of a consensus alternative candidate prompted the member countries to extend it twice for two annual periods.
The new secretary must be elected at the Washington summit in July, when the Alliance’s 75th anniversary will be celebrated, so the candidacy should be agreed upon in the coming weeks, preferably before the European elections in June.
The liberal Klaus Werner Iohannis (Sibiu, 1959), belonging to the Transylvanian German minority, a physicist by training, is a convinced Europeanist and solid defender of Ukraine. He has served two terms as head of state, a limit provided for in the Romanian Constitution. Presidential elections are being held this fall to choose his successor. Curiously, the current deputy secretary general of NATO, the Romanian Mircea Geoana, 65, leads the polls to become head of state, although he has not officially presented his candidacy.