Romania's army to send 1/3 less troops abroad in 2014

Romania's Supreme Defence Council (CSAT) on Tuesday decided to reduce by one third its troops for missions abroad in 2014. According to the plan approved by the CSAT on the troops' deployment abroad in 2014, Romania's Army will send in abroad missions and operations a number of 1,311 military, 725 less than this year. As concerns the Interior Ministry, the forces participating in 2014 in missions under the aegis of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations Organisation (UN) will count 791 military and policemen, 301 more than in 2013, the Presidential Administration informed in a release. "The main effort continues to be the participation within the ISAF operation in Afghanistan and the maintenance of its commitment in the theatre of operations in the Balkans," the Presidency release read. The CSAT, which includes the president, prime minister, ministers of defense and foreign affairs, and intelligence chiefs, is Romania's top-most executive body able to decide on security and defense issues. Romania began to send troops to Afghanistan in July 2002. The action was the country's first military mission abroad after World War II.