Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Thursday evening in a post on a social network said that the decisions of the Romanian authorities are the best for Romania and its partners, referring to a position voiced by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry.

“A very clear answer – YES, we are aware that our decisions are the best for Romania and our partners!,” the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter, referring to a statement of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich, who warned that, “if the Romanian Government considers it possible to increase the presence of the NATO grouping in its territory, (…) it should be aware of the responsibility for this and consequences of this step for the region’s security.”

The build-up of NATO forces in Eastern Europe is an unprecedentedly dangerous step, violating Russia’s agreements with the alliance, the Russian Foreign Ministry also said on Thursday, commenting on Romania’s readiness to allow the deployment of NATO equipment in its territory, informs TASS Russian official news agency.

“The build-up of the NATO force grouping in the eastern flank, or as they say now, in the “frontline states,” is an unprecedentedly dangerous step, which violates absolutely every agreement one could think of, and the main thing is that it violates the Russia-NATO Founding Act that is still in effect,” Alexander Lukashevich said.

According to him, the document says that “the sides assumed the obligations not to excessively build up their armaments and combat equipment, so-called “substantial combat forces,” although Russia insisted on clarification of that wording. “NATO and Russia will, together with other States Parties, seek to strengthen stability by further developing measures to prevent any potentially threatening build-up of conventional forces in agreed regions of Europe, to include Central and Eastern Europe,” reads the Founding Act, added the Russian official, according to the TASS agency English section.

“We have repeatedly emphasised that the mutual restraint principle should be used here,” the diplomat said. “If this corresponds to reality, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the Russian Federation reserves the right to bear in mind this essential factor in its military planning,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said, TASS concludes.

The Romanian Government on Thursday approved a series of amendments and completions to Law No 291/2007 on the entrance, stationing and operation conduct or transit of foreign armed forces on Romania’s territory, the Government’s Press Office informs in a release to Agerpres.

The draft law adopted by the Government introduces “legislative solutions allowing the implementing on Romania’s territory the allied reassurance measures.”

“As NATO member state, Romania assumed a series of commitments in supporting the collective defence effort of the organisation. The plan to increase the operational capacity of the Alliance (the Readiness Action Plan), adopted following the decisions made in the NATO Summit of September 2014, carried out in Wales, provides a series of measures of reassurance and adaptation of the NATO states to the new challenges, risks and threats of the international security environment.

The most important of these measures provide the establishment of some multinational command and control elements on the territory of some member states of the Alliance (among which Romania, too), for supporting the integration of NATO forces, prepositioning of some military products, equipment and materials of the endowments of the armed forces of some NATO member states, aimed at preparing and/or conducting some operations, as well as increasing the number of exercises aimed at the collective defence,” the cited source points out.

The release also mentions the areas covered by the amendments and completions proposed by the Executive: “the prepositioning of some military products, equipment and materials of the endowment of foreign armed forces, accompanied, according to case, by the serving staff; the adaptation of the procedures on Romania’s state border crossing to the training needs; the optimisation of the modality of granting the support of the host nation, in the context of the collective defence effort; the adaptation of the procedures of the establishment/deployment of some multinational commandments, entities/elements or structures to the requirements imposed by the collective defence effort or for putting them at NATO’s disposal.”