Six months after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, efforts to strengthen the Black Sea region have raised questions about why it was not done sooner. Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, French colonel Clement Torrent was ordered to build a base in Chinka for 1,000 soldiers on NATO’s eastern border within six months, Bloomberg reports, News.ro reports.

However, trucks carrying thousands of tons of material to build a military base in Chinkou must drive through a field of sunflowers because the main bridge in Chinkou is so dilapidated that the river below is visible through holes in the asphalt, Bloomberg writes.

French Colonel Clement Torrent and about 200 soldiers from France, Belgium and the Netherlands are now busy leveling the top of a hill in Cinque, Transylvania.

“The deadline is before the first frost,” said Torrent, who heads the engineering operations team from a base near Cinque, about 260 kilometers north of Bucharest.

“This is a sign of solidarity. The alliance must be tangible.”

NATO is trying to prevent one of the continent’s poorest regions from becoming a security hotspot

Russia’s war against Ukraine has answered a fundamental question that NATO countries have asked for years: whether the US, France and Germany, as senior members, would fight for their less wealthy former communist allies if attacked.

There have also been questions about whether the coalition is doing enough to stop Russian expansionism after years of underinvestment and unheeded warnings, and whether efforts to reimagine the previously neglected Black Sea region should have been implemented much earlier, Bloomberg comments.

Six months after the Russian invasion, NATO is focusing on how to thwart Moscow’s power on its eastern flank and prevent one of the continent’s poorest regions from becoming a security hotspot.

The Black Sea separates Europe from Asia and is surrounded by Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia. It is an important trade route for agricultural products from Ukraine and Russia and is connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Bosphorus Strait of Turkey.

According to Matthew Orr, a Stratfor security analyst, Moscow has prioritized Southeast Europe. His projects there “show how concerned the Russians are about the region, they want to have a strong military footprint – to which NATO must respond,” he emphasized.

Eastern European leaders warned they were planning a threat after Moscow invaded Georgia in 2008. Later, Putin launched a war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas and annexed Crimea in 2014.

During that time, the Kremlin has increased its military capabilities in the Black Sea, redeployed ground forces, strengthened its air defenses and modernized its navy, deploying activity in war zones including Libya and Syria, where it has a naval base.

“The Black Sea is Russia’s gateway to warm waters, especially the Mediterranean,” said Yulia Yoza, director of the Black Sea Program at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington.

“This is Russia’s gateway to building power and strength in the Middle East, Africa and beyond,” he continued.

Additional NATO presence

Weeks after the February 24 invasion, the coalition agreed at a summit in Brussels to form four new battle groups for Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia to complement the four battle groups deployed in Poland and the Baltic states.

Romania had already hosted about 1,000 American NATO soldiers before the war, and the Black Sea base of Mykhailo Kogelnikan was a transit point to the Middle East.

NATO allies have significantly increased their presence on the alliance’s eastern borders, deploying more troops, aircraft and ships. The current plan calls for the construction of garrisons in the rest of NATO’s border states, where new units of the international force, numbering approximately 1,000 soldiers, will be regularly deployed. In addition, the Allies will identify domestic units that can quickly engage troops already on the ground in the eastern states if needed.

The Baltic States and Poland have been advocating for this additional presence for years. Russia has threatened to take revenge, although it has not yet taken concrete measures.

By linking up with host country armies and deploying weapons, ammunition and heavy equipment, the force could be expanded to a 5,000-strong brigade, said Col. Flavian Garrigou Grandchamp, France’s top national representative in Romania.

“We are preparing to be able to fight side by side with Romanian, American and other troops. In the worst case, if this happens, we will fight,” he emphasized.

Hundreds of thousands of troops from the NATO-led allies are now undergoing enhanced training as part of a major overhaul of the military bloc’s defenses agreed by leaders in Madrid in July.

Most officials doubt that Russia will attack a NATO member directly, but the alliance plans to keep international troops on its borders “for several years to make sure the situation stabilizes,” Garrigue Grandchamp said.

This requires investment, which is largely lacking in Romania and Bulgaria.

“It is not only about defense, but also about food security. Therefore, all these decisions taken to strengthen resistance and defense in the eastern part are very welcome,” said Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke.

The construction of the Cincu base is complicated by the lack of infrastructure

However, making the right decisions became an immediate challenge for Torrent and his team of military engineers.

The main bridge in the village of Cincu, in the heart of Romania, is in such a state of disrepair that you can see the river flowing below through the holes in the asphalt. Trucks must drive through fields of sunflowers to transport thousands of tons of material to and from the construction site on the hill, Bloomberg comments.

Romania has more than 950 km of roads, which ranks last in the European Union in terms of per capita. In Brasov county, the average wage is 3,500 lei per month for employed people, but in the case of many smaller towns and villages, the majority of the population lives off subsistence agriculture and government assistance.

Cinque Mayor Aurel Sorin Suchiu is relying on the government to pave the streets and an EU-funded education project for locals to support the military base, as well as grants to set up restaurants and accommodation.

“It is very difficult to change people’s mentality and convince them to sell two cows and renovate two rooms to make more money,” Suchu said.

The second area that needs investment, much more important, is the construction of the Romanian army. Most NATO members have long been unable to achieve the alliance’s goal of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense. However, Romania has met this target since 2015 and will increase it to 2.5% next year.

The total amount of military purchases will reach at least 12 billion euros. The most expensive so far is the Patriot air defense system, worth 4 billion euros, which will become operational this year.

According to the plan, the French base in Chink should work at full capacity by the end of the year. This means a general change in NATO’s view of Russia, Bloomberg concludes.

In Cinq, France, 360 soldiers are already stationed there, including military equipment, but today the big work is to develop the base and build new facilities to house the entire NATO battalion that will operate in Romania.

In addition to the military itself, France also has a detachment of engineers and construction technicians, with the help of which they work on the construction of new military facilities. 130 French, 60 Dutch and about 30 Romanians are working on the development of the Chinku base.

“It will be a small town,” say representatives of the French army in Romania. In addition to living quarters, dining rooms and recreation areas, warehouses for weapons, fuel, garages and various technical premises will be built, which will be at the disposal of the NATO combat battalion.

Work on the “small town” in Cinque is also financed by Romania and France, it started in May and is on the horizon for completion in November, when all French forces from Kogelničan are expected to have already moved to Cinque.

At the moment, the French-led NATO battalion in Romania has about 750 French soldiers in Romania, but the number will increase until next summer, when the number is expected to exceed a thousand soldiers, with the force of the battalion participating in the “Aigle” mission in Romania, now divided into three main locations: Cincu ridge (Brasov), Mykhailo Kogelnicanu base (Constanța) and Capu Midia ridge (Constanța). In addition, in all the months since the first deployment in February, the French military has been constantly conducting training missions with Romanian soldiers in various other areas, bases or training grounds in the country.