Financiarul

The Romanian Land Forces Chief-of-Staff Major General Dan Ghica-Radu has recently attended the Day of Distinguished Visitors organized in Buzau (south) as part of the bilateral Turkish-Romanian Common Airborne Commando Exercise 2009.

For one week, over Oct, 5-11 a platoon made up of 30 paratroopers of the 60th Baneasa Otopeni Paratroopers Battalion and a subunit counting 30 Turkish parachutists of the Brigade I Commando were participating in joint training activities both in Romania and Turkey.

The drill is aimed at a better learning and knowing the operation procedures between the paratroopers of the two countries, the specialty techniques and tactics, at increasing the mutual trust and confidence and strengthening the bilateral cooperation.

Also attending the event was the deputy Commander of the 1st Dacica Infantry Division Brigadier General Avram Catanici and the commander of the Brigade I Commando of Kaisery, Turkey Brigadier General Omer Faruk Kucuk. “This exercise is useful in bringing peace, we are very glad we have been participating in this drill, along with the Romanian Army, and the Romanian Land Forces.

We are very pleased and happy with the hospitability the chief of the Romanian Land Forces Staff has showed us. We are positive that this kind of exercise will continue in the future as well. These exercises are the fruit of the close ties between our two armies, that of Romania and that of Turkey, at a high level,” said Gen. Kucuk.

In his turn Mj. Gen. Dan Ghica-Radu emphasized the importance of conducting the drill, specifying that these joint exercises with the military of the commando brigade of the Turkish army are very important for the Romanian military subunits of paratroopers, because they enable an experience exchange, which is extremely useful and ensure the best way of training ourselves, knowing each others and acting together.

Gen. Ghica also thinks that these joint training activities are also important because they are ‘beneficial for the actions deployed in the operation theaters.” The joint training activities by the paratroopers of the Romanian Land Forces and the Turkish Commando subunits started in 2005 and they developed from a training activity important for both sides