About 200 Belgian soldiers are travelling to Romania for the Forward Land Forces operation, which will reinforce NATO's eastern flank – not far from the Ukrainian border.
A first group of about 100 Belgian soldiers departed from the military airport in Melsbroek last Monday, with another 200 soldiers joining them on Tuesday in Cincu, at the centre of Romania. There, NATO decided to create a new battle group to reinforce the eastern flank of the Western military alliance.
"Militaries can train there with partners who have resources that we do not have in Belgium," Colonel-Lieutenant Phillipe Reyniers said on Flemish radio on Tuesday morning.
A total of about 300 soldiers are going to the Romanian city of Cincu, including a Luxembourg section. The Belgian soldiers will be employed in a French unit of about 1,000 people, in which they will also train with troops from Poland and Portugal.
Improving cooperation
Not only the soldiers' presence but also what they are going to do there is very important, said Reyniers. "Everyone has their speciality. The unit I am responsible for specialises in hand-to-hand combat. We literally look the opponent in the eye."
"The unit needs support for what it can no longer do itself. Support that we already receive in Belgium in the field of artillery, for example." Additionally, there is the possibility of cooperation with French tanks, "which are not available with us and which opens up huge prospects."
Good cooperation is very important and ensures that troops from different countries are not surprised during battle, Reyniers explained. "If you work together, all procedures should be well-defined and you should speak the same language. Our people are now training for that. When they come back, they will have a lot more experience in that domain, which benefits us in the day-to-day operation and preparation for other assignments."
For a mission to protect NATO's eastern flank, the location of the operation is quite central in Romania, but that offers every opportunity to train as large training centres are often located where the least amount of people are disturbed.
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Alternating with the Netherlands, Belgium delivers a supplement to the (mainly French) units of the battle group deployed in Romania. The one-year mission will be divided into three four-month periods to keep pace with the rotation of the French units.
After the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, NATO decided to double the number of combat troops from four to eight and to create four new battle groups. In addition to Romania, NATO also does this in Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia.
The battlegroups are added to those in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Poland, which have been around since 2017.
