Paul Hurmuz: The Romanian-British defense cooperation agreement will strengthen NATO’s defense activity in the Black Sea

Vladimir Mitev

Summary

The key points from the interview with retired Romanian General Paul Hurmuz regarding the November 13, 2024 defense cooperation agreement between Romania and the United Kingdom include:

1. Scope of the Agreement

• Strategic Umbrella: Building on the 2023 UK–Romania Strategic Partnership, the agreement establishes a formal legal framework to deepen bilateral defense cooperation.
• Key Focus Areas: Covers defense logistics, technology development, military procurement, hybrid threat countermeasures, arms control, joint exercises, resource planning, and military training/education.

2. Direct Support for Ukraine

• Regional Maritime Training Center: Establishes a training facility in Romania (approved by the Romanian Parliament in October 2024) with substantial UK support to train Ukrainian marines under the Maritime Security Capabilities Coalition.
• Logistics Hub: Supports Romania’s participation in the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) mission through the “Logistic Enabling Node-Romania” (LEN-R) facility at the 71st Air Base in Câmpia Turzii.

3. Regional and Black Sea Security

• Maritime & NATO Integration: Leverages UK naval expertise to bolster NATO’s deterrence, defense, and maritime capabilities in the Black Sea while adhering to Montreux Convention constraints.
• Multilateral Collaboration: Complements ongoing regional security efforts, including the mine-countermeasures initiative involving Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey (which the UK has been invited to join starting in 2025), as well as NATO’s Operation Sea Guardian.
• Broader Flank Alignment: Complements UK-led initiatives like the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) on the northern flank, ensuring the Black Sea remains a priority on NATO’s broader strategic agenda.

Interview

Introduction

Paul Hurmuz is a retired Romanian general who is also one of the respected security experts in the Romanian media. He served as Romania’s defense attaché in the UK between 2003 and 2007, and between 2013 and 2016 he was Deputy Director of the Intelligence Division at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. Between 2016 and 2017, he was the Deputy State Secretary for Defense Policy and Planning at the Romanian Ministry of Defense.

Paul Hurmuz is a member of the New Strategy Centre, a leading Romanian think tank of experts in international relations and security.

On November 13, 2024 the defense ministers of Great Britain and Romania signed a security agreement, which will play an important role in the Black Sea region. The agreement provides for maritime, cyber and maritime cooperation as well as maritime training for the Ukrainian armed forces. Paul Hurmuz talks to Bridge of Friendship about the details of the agreement and its importance for NATO’s eastern flank countries, including in the Black Sea area.

Overview of the Romanian-British defense agreement

Romania signed a defense cooperation agreement with the UK on November 13, 2024. What did that agreement between the two countries require and what does it stipulate?

Yes, it is basically a continuation of the joint declaration on the strategic partnership between Romania and the UK, signed last year in 2023. And basically, this defense agreement is under this broader umbrella of the strategic partnership between the two countries. There are many areas that this agreement aims to cover:

• defense logistics and defense support; 
• defense technologies;
• procurement and development of military capabilities; 
• resource planning, communications and information; 
• measures to counter hybrid threats; 
• exercises, 
• international operations under a UN mandate; 
• arms control; 
• military training and education. 

So it’s a very broad issue and basically it aims to cover bilaterally the things that the two countries have developed so far and to give them legal cover so that such cooperation projects can develop further.

At the same time, this agreement also covers a very specific area, in the sense that the UK is part of the allied effort on training and helping Ukraine to develop various military capabilities. And from this point of view, Romania, with the help of the UK, aims to develop a center for the training of Ukrainian marines. This is the Regional Maritime Training Center, a structure under the aegis of the Maritime Security Capabilities Coalition of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine. The center is a joint effort between the UK, Romania and other strategic allies to provide essential maritime training for Ukrainian forces. And this center will, in practice, be very strongly supported from the outset by the UK.

This is an initiative that Romania has had for a long time. Basically, on October 1, 2024, the Romanian Parliament approved President Klaus Iohannis’ request to set up a maritime training facility for Ukrainian personnel on our territory.

In the same request made by the President and approved by the Romanian Parliament on October 1st, was also Romania’s participation in the NATO-Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) mission, starting this year, by providing the necessary infrastructure and equipment to host and operate on the national territory the ‘Logistic Enabling Node-Romania’ (LEN-R) facility, within the 71st Air Base Campia Turzii.

The Romanian-British defense agreement’s impact on the Black Sea region

How does this agreement influence security in the Black Sea, where NATO littoral countries are already collaborating in the context of the de-mining initiative, and the collaboration between Romania and the UK will also have a maritime aspect?

Yes, basically, during the meeting that the Romanian Minister of Defense had with his British counterpart, he even invited him to participate in this trilateral initiative between Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, starting in 2025. In practice, the United Kingdom has, over the years, and especially after the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022, shown constant interest in this area. It has participated with several air detachments for the NATO air policing mission in the region.

Even this year has had such participation and the UK has strong maritime expertise and experience. As such, it is a positive thing from my point of view.

Also during this presence in London, the Romanian Minister of Defence also visited the MARCOM command, which is NATO’s allied maritime command, and underlined the strategic importance of the Black Sea in the allied context, the need for a strengthened NATO presence to counter destabilizing actions of the Russian Federation, while insisting on keeping the Black Sea region on the allied agenda.

And from the naval point of view, he also emphasized the importance of this initiative between Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania on mine action and Romania’s participation in other NATO missions, including the Sea Guardian operation, where Romania participated with a frigate, the King Ferdinand frigate, including Romania’s assumption of command of the NATO Standing Naval Mine Action Group (SNMCMG-2) in the second semester of this year.

So there are many things that Romania, including in this context, has promoted in order to increase the visibility of the importance of the Black Sea, including in the naval field, including in the field of increasing allied capabilities, but also for consistent support to Ukraine for training and preparing the armed forces of this country.

The Romanian-British defense agreement’s impact on the triangle Romania-Poland-Ukraine

If we look at the northern part of the eastern flank, where Poland is, how does the agreement between the UK and Romania influence or affect the activities that are already going on between Poland, Ukraine and Romania, as a kind of triangle?

I think that the UK is still keeping the situation on the northern flank under the spotlight, as is very well known this UK initiative ‘Joint Expeditionary Force’, where there are basically 10 NATO states that are part of this initiative (minus Poland) and it is increasingly aiming to have a consistent strategic profile and freedom of movement, because this initiative is not within NATO, so they have a lot of flexibility in that respect.

But, at the same time, from a historical point of view, we could say that the UK has always seen the Black Sea as an important area, maybe not as important as the Baltic Sea, which is naturally in close proximity (it is directly influenced) but the UK has always had a strategic game and I think that this agreement between Romania and the UK, as well as the efforts that Romania and Great Britain and the allied states in the Black Sea Basin are making, are aimed at strengthening the allied deterrence and defense posture in this region, while taking into account the limitations that we have here, determined by the Montreux Convention. So I say there are positive things, obviously more can be done, but what has been achieved so far is a positive trend in my view.

Photo: UK Defense Minister John Healey (left) and his Romanian counterpart Angel Tîlvar in London after the signing of the UK-Romania defense cooperation agreement (Source: Facebook, Angel Tîlvar)

Subscribe to the channel of the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” in YouTube, where a number of video and audio interviews are published! The blog can also be followed in Facebook and Twitter. Its Telegram channel is here. And here is its Substack account.

About Author