It has now been a week since Russia invaded Ukraine and fighting is still raging in several Ukrainian towns and around Kyiv. Belgium will send 300 soldiers to Romania, in addition to equipment.
Theo Francken began by emphasizing the unprecedented nature of this operation. “This is the first time that we are deploying to Romania. We are already present in the Baltic countries (…), but this is the first time that we are deploying to the south-eastern borders of NATO “
For the Flemish nationalist it is a strong signal sent to Russia. “It’s to be strong vis-à-vis Russia, to say ‘this is our border’ and we defend our border (from NATO, editor’s note). If Russia also has the idea of attacking a NATO country, it will be a real declaration of war and it will be war”.
On the workforce side, it is “the first third lancer” who will be there, says Dimitry Modaert. “But such a detachment must be inter-arms, so we find logistics, signals and engineering personnel, who are necessary and who represent a large part of this detachment.
If this deployment is rapid and unprecedented for our Belgian soldiers, the president of the SLFP ensures that the staff is ready: “It’s a first but there has been more than a year of certification to ensure that the staff are ready. There is a great motivation with younger staff who have expectations to do well at the level of the European security.”
However, the CGPM, another military union, regretted the lack of equipment provided to our soldiers for this mission. An opinion shared by Theo Francken.”We made promises to supply rifles and rocket launchers to the Ukrainian army. But it’s clear that we need more for our troops in Romania.”
“The Belgian army is not efficient enough”, he asserts. “They (the soldiers editor’s note) do everything they can but at some point, we reach the end. We have to invest and look for weapons and ammunition for our soldiers too.“Theo Francken also intends to challenge the Prime Minister on the subject in the House this Wednesday.”I think it is necessary, for the short term, to have a meeting with Minister Dedonder, the Walloon Minister-President Di Rupo and Defense, because we need arms and ammunition as soon as possible.”
“In the long term, it is fundamental to reinvest in the Belgian army”he also pleads elsewhere.
Facing Russia, are our troops really under-equipped? Dimitry Modaert is more nuanced. “We are not equipped enough, certainly in relation to the budget granted. On the controversy, I am not at all interested, even if certain problems are highlighted. The main thing is first of all the security of the troops vis-à-vis a possible enemy. So I think that there is an assumption of political responsibility and of the general staff, but you have to be very careful before talking to the press”
For the trade unionist, it is first necessary to determine what the Defense wants: “The approach must be constructive. You have to start from the level of ambition. What do we want to do with our Defense at the national level and dual level with aid to the nation?“. Before deciding on investments, the army must specify its missions. “The goal is not to trade in war, to swing money to reach a certain percentage (of investment, editor’s note). It is to know what level of ambition we want to reach and, from there, arises the necessities of personnel, material and infrastructures. The plans of recruitment and purchase of material are not done in a snap of the fingers”, he insists.
A vision supported by Theo Francken.“It is necessary to have a strategic vision, and it is being built“, recalls the Flemish.
Erratum (02/03/2022 10h25)
A shortcut in the transcription of Theo Francken’s remarks was corrected this Wednesday morning. We wrote this first: “This is a declaration of war sent by Russia and it will be war”. However, the federal deputy N-VA made it clear that his answer concerned a war in the event of a Russian attack once morest a NATO member country.
