Romania lacked means to stop Russian drone, says Geoană

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]The shock of the of the Russian incursion and explosion on a on a block of apartments in Galati is still here with us.

[00:00:08]Um just for for our viewers to to see Galati is a is a big city, industrial city on the Danube.

[00:00:15]On the other side of the river, there is Ukraine.

[00:00:18]And Russia is constantly attacking infrastructure on the Ukrainian side and a few times, and this was the most severe incident, uh they crossed the border, the airspace of Romania, NATO country.

[00:00:30]And that's why in Galati, in the Danube Delta, there is a little bit of concern that has been accumulating in time in the four years and something like that.

[00:00:39]>> And Romania's air force couldn't intercept this drone. Why is that?

[00:00:44]>> You know, a Romanian pilot, an F-16 pilot, shot down a drone in Estonia just a few days back. They they didn't have enough enough time and space to shoot.

[00:00:53]And the question is, where do you shoot you know, a drone? Uh do you need an F-16? Do you need an F-35? Do you need a you know, a missile which is so expensive? So, I think the lesson from this and I think we should learn it all over the eastern flank of NATO um sooner is that you need to have adequate anti-drone sensors, anti-drone equipment, faster procurement systems because these things change so fast. The innovation cycle for drone war is changing so fast that I think our systems are robust, but sometimes there is a basic that is balanced between the kind of assets we have and the kind of needs we actually have for such incidents.

[00:01:34]>> Cuz if this happened once, it's going to happen again. And Romania's clearly not prepared for these kind of frequent drone incursions.

[00:01:41]>> We we have a specific geographical situation, as I mentioned, it's basically very close. So, I think we have to find adequate solutions, you know, acoustic sensors. This something that technology exists. You know, anti-drone systems, this technology exists. The The that we have to procure so much, for everything, from high intensity war or, you know, high level gear, let's say lower end technology like this one is needed. And I think we have to really prioritize better and and internalize the lessons learned from Iran and from Ukraine because the two fusion of lessons learned and I think we have to do much better. Not only Romania, but I think we see such incidents all along the eastern flank, especially the countries neighboring Ukraine, like Romania is.

[00:02:23]>> And what would be the next step? And does the with the support of NATO here, of course, if this happens again and escalates?

[00:02:30]>> You know, uh I I think we have to do a much better effort to to try to find the right kind of air and missile defense for for for NATO in general. So, if for mid-altitude and high-altitude, let's say, there are some things in place, Patriot missiles, you know, the F-16s, the F-35s, NATO operations, for these basically low-altitude things, we are still uh lacking uh the kind of adequate means. They do exist uh on the market. You can acquire them. The only thing is that you have to put your right priorities in the right place. Try to make sure that you keep up with innovation cycle. This uh electronic jamming is developing and changed basically every other few months. But I think we have to do a much much faster cycle of procurement and adaptation to these