The Social Democrat Angel Tilvar is the new Minister of Defense, appointed by the party leadership to take over the office left vacant last week, when Vasile Dincu resigned. The ministry is the responsibility of the Social Democratic Party, according to the agreement with the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, together with which it formed the ruling coalition in Romania.
„I believe that right now, given the complicated situation at our borders, we need a balanced person, with a strong European and Euro-Atlantic vision”, said the president of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu.
Angel Tilvar, aged 60, has been a member of Romania’s Parliament since 2004. He is a teacher of English, but, according to the resume published on the Chamber of Deputies’ website, is a graduate of the National Defense College of the Mihai Viteazu National Intelligence Academy. In 2014, Angel Tilvar was appointed minister-delegate for the relations with Romanians around the world. Currently, he is chairman of the Senate’s European Affairs Committee and head of the Romanian Parliamentary Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
In a recent statement, Angel Tilvar stated that the priorities of his term are related to Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine and the Romanian soldiers in theaters of operations abroad. Minister Tilvar:
„East of Romania we are faced with a security issue caused by Russia invading a sovereign state, without being provoked. This is our main concern at this point. On the other hand, we should not forget that there are Romanian military involved in maintaining peace in various parts of the world. They are equally important to us. Also, there is lots of talk about the fact that we will earmark 2.5% of the GDP for defense. We should not forget that the people involved in what we call the defense architecture are also extremely important.”
The Liberal Prime-Minister Nicolae Ciuca, who had taken over the interim defense office, wished the new minister good luck and said that Romania „is a responsible and active contributor to promoting Euroatlantic security and stability”. „His experience as member of parliament and chairman of the Romanian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly is solid argument in favor of him holding this office”, the PM said.
On the opposition side, the president of Save Romania Union, Catalin Drula, claims that the new minister is not a happy choice for the defense ministry. In his opinion, given the current conditions, with a war underway very close to Romania’s borders, the Ministry of Defense should be headed by somebody that inspires trust. We recall that on October 24th, Vasile Dincu resigned from the office of Minister of Defense, after less than a year since he’d been appointed, invoking the „impossibility to collaborate” with Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis.
(Daniela Budu, Radio Romania International)
