The former representative of the NATO command, Virgil Beletanu, said on Monday on Prima TV that if we do not restore the army reserve on the principles of volunteering, we will have to re-introduce compulsory military service, and noted that parliamentarians should be asked why the law, which is absolutely necessary to restoration of the reserve of the Romanian army, is still circulating in the interdepartmental procedure for more than 3 years, according to News.ro.

We currently have less than 2,000 volunteers in the reserve, Poland has 38,000 reservists,” Balechanu said, adding that the Israel Defense Forces mobilized 300,000 reservists overnight out of the nearly 500,000 they have on file.

Virgil Beletanu stated in Prima News that there is no peacetime army that does not have a reserve, and gave the example of Ukraine, which, according to him, “would not stand up if it did not have a reserve, which means the completion of units.” He also said that the Israel Defense Forces have so far mobilized 300,000 reservists overnight out of the nearly 500,000 they have on file.

According to him, a successful direction is the restoration of reserves, based on the principles of volunteering, either through a voluntary reserve or through volunteering paid on time.

“We also need the training of the operational reserve, those who underwent military training before 2007. All these issues are included, as amendments, in the law on preparing the population for defense. Ask the parliamentarians why the law, which is absolutely necessary to restore the reserve of the Romanian army, is still circulating in the inter-institutional procedure for more than two years, 3 years have passed,” said Virgil Beletan.

He noted that this law introduces the training of reservists for up to 15 days with a certain periodicity, in time, in years, of those who have completed military training, and who enter military service for a period of up to 4 months and for financial reasons, which we are not talking about now . (..)

If we do not restore the reserve of the Romanian army on a voluntary basis, then we will have to re-introduce compulsory military service, and such a decision cannot be postponed for the next five years. What do you think, will we have any political party that will raise the question of the restoration of compulsory military service in the pre-election program? I rule out such a possibility, because it would mean a disaster in the elections,” said Virgil Beletan.

He noted that, however, “after the elections, the parties that win the elections will be obliged, if the Romanian army does not restore the reserve, to make a decision on the restoration of compulsory military service.”

“Now we have less than 2,000 volunteer reservists, Poland has 38,000 reservists,” Belecanu said, noting that “we are currently trying to recruit all young people who have been selected as volunteers.”

“Unfortunately, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of Defense is unable to attract all those who have passed the selection for volunteer positions in the reserve, there are contradictory points. That is, young people, citizens of Romania, come to join the reserve as volunteers, they pass tests, they are selected, but there are situations in which they are not included,” Virgil Beletanu said, according to News.ro.