The contract on the public procurement of four multirole corvettes for the Romanian Army will be sealed around the end of April, defence minister Vasile Dincu told journalists at the 57th Air Base from Mihail Kogălniceanu.

"Probably the end of April is the moment when we will be able to make a final decision," he said, according to Economica.net.

"We are very close," he added, speaking of the project launched in 2016.

Further inquired about the repeated delays in the context of rising security risks in the Black Sea region, minister Dincu explained that "it's not about a country defending itself," but rather about a collective response of the NATO structures.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Defence informed that the specific procedure for purchasing the corvettes was completed in 2019 by declaring the association formed by the Naval Group of France and Constanta shipyards as the winning bidder.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Virgil Simonescu)