New Strategy Center participated in the conference “The Europe of Defence”, organized by the Defence Mission of the Embassy of France, which took place on 5 December at the French Institute in Bucharest.
Major General (Ret.), Paul Hurmuz, Senior Associate Expert at NSC participated with the presentation, “The Europe of Defence in the Context of the main Global Evolutions – A Personal View” focused on the global security challenges, including the perspectives of the Strategic Nuclear Stability between US and Russia, the European efforts for maintaining the Nuclear Deterrence on the continent, the impact of the Indo-Pacific evolutions on the Security and Defence of Europe and the implications for NATO’s responsibilities in the Black Sea region.
He highlighted the fact that the Black Sea remains the most exposed part of NATO’s Area of Responsibility in the context of the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine and the Russian aggressive actions in the area. This is amplified by the fact that even if the Russian Ground Forces suffered big losses in Ukraine, its Strategic Forces still remain strong. Likewise, Russian Air, Naval, Nonstrategic Nuclear and Cyber capabilities are still largely unaffected and able to project power, exercise coercion and support conventional and hybrid operations.
Considering the future energy projects in the Black Sea, developed by Romania and its Allies and Partners in the region, we should expect these to be subject to the Russian hybrid interference. Also, Russia has been investing in capabilities that would allow specialized capabilities to place explosives on the seafloor, physically endangering underwater infrastructure.
The panel was moderated by Mr. Tudor Curtifan, editor-in-chief of the Defense Romania publication and the other speakers were: Ms. Violeta Nicolescu, Director for Defence Policy at the Romanian Ministry of National Defence, Mr. Alexandre Escorcia, Director of the Europe, North America and multilateral relations Department at the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and Mr. Arthur Kenigsberg, Founding Director of the French think-tank Euro Creative.