The French have spent, in just two years, 80 million euros on the infrastructure of the military camp in Cincu, Brașov County, Romania.
At the National Joint Training Center in Cincu, the handover ceremony between the seventh and eighth French rotations took place, specifically, Colonel Benoît Chrissement handed over command to Colonel Louis Marie Levacher.
On this occasion, the French part of the military camp in Cincu was named "General Berthelot Camp," after the French General Henri Mathias Berthelot, who became a national hero when the Romanian and French armies fought against the same enemies 118 years ago.
The French showed Romanian journalists the infrastructure works carried out in the last two years, for which 80 million euros were spent, writes Monitorul Apărării.
The National Joint Training Center in Cincu has changed significantly in the last two years. When the French soldiers arrived in Romania over two years ago, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they complained about the poor living conditions they found in Cincu.
In the French press, an article appeared in which they said they were "cold, hungry, and sleepy."
At that time, Romanian authorities stated that the deployment of French troops to Romania was made following an ad-hoc decision and they did not have time to prepare for their reception.
Now, two years after that moment, the camp looks completely different. The French have made huge investments in Cincu, as told by a French lieutenant colonel, a member of the Aigle mission.
"To fulfill this mission, all combat support services are represented here (NSE - National Support Element), such as administration, strategic movements, transport support, ammunition and artillery supply.
As you can see, there are many things here, behind me, where there was nothing two years ago. France, as the framework nation, has the opportunity to guarantee support in all aspects, especially in the General Berthelot Camp in Cincu, for our Belgian, Luxembourgish, and soon Spanish colleagues. By the end of the year, we will be able to accommodate up to 2,000 soldiers here," said the French lieutenant colonel.
"What we have here provides support for over 6,000 vehicles of all types, and we also have an ammunition depot. Of course, we also have command posts here and medical support.
For all this, France has invested enormously.
Just this year, France has invested around 40 million euros in the infrastructure program for Cincu. About 90% of these investments are made with Romanian companies, especially for infrastructure, but also for furniture, water supply and filtration, rental of various goods, vehicles, etc.
The construction of this camp and the support for the troops have had an economic impact at the regional level," he added, mentioning that last year's investments were similar to this year's.
The lieutenant colonel also stated that they expect Romanian authorities to address issues with some bridges in the region, especially the one in Voila: "It is difficult for us because it takes much longer to reach Voila. Normally, it would take about 30-40 minutes, but it now takes us 2 hours and 30 minutes to get there with military equipment. It is more challenging from a logistics perspective," he added.
Last year, in September, the decision was made to rebuild the bridge in Voila, with Romanian authorities stating that it should be completed by September 2024.
There are currently 1,500 French soldiers in Romania, divided into the following units: the multinational combat group at Cincu and Mihail Kogălniceanu, the medium-range ground-to-air defense detachment MAMBA in Capul Midia, the NSE in Cincu and Kogălniceanu, and the Senior National Representatives (SNR) and liaison detachment in Bucharest.
In 2025, the NATO combat group in Cincu will be upgraded to brigade level, which means the number of soldiers will increase to 4,000. At that time, the number of military equipment will also increase, and we could have up to 50 Leclerc tanks in Romania.