Afstan: More Bulgarians, fewer Romanians

These changes seem to balance out and the Romanians still have a fighting force with the American at Zabul.

1) Bulgaria:

Bulgaria’s decision to increase its presence in Afghanistan will augment efforts to establish peace and security in Afghanistan, said Gordon O’Connor, the Minister of National Defence [on May 2].

“Bulgaria has announced it will deploy an additional 335 troops to Afghanistan, up to 200 of whom will replace a contingent of Romanian soldiers who have been maintaining security at Kandahar’s airport,” Minister O’Connor said. “I applaud this move. The Canadian Forces look forward to working closely with our Bulgarian counterparts,” Minister O’Connor continued.

“The increase of the Bulgarian participation in Afghanistan corresponds to the capacity of the Bulgarian Army and the demands of the ISAF operation. It is a part of the effort of the international community in the fight against terrorism. The implementation of the mission of the Bulgarian troops will be in close cooperation with the NATO allies, Canada in particular,” said Vesselin Bliznakov, Bulgaria’s Minister of Defence.

Evgueni Stoytchev, Bulgaria’s Ambassador in Ottawa, is convinced that the Bulgarian troops in Kandahar will operate successfully with the Canadian Forces in assisting the Afghan people in the process of building a stable and democratic society capable of guaranteeing its own security...

2) Romania:

Members of the Romanian Army conducted a change of command ceremony today [19 January] at Forward Operating Base Lagman in Zabul province.

Task Force (TF) Calugareni, under command of Romanian Lt. Col. Daniel Petrescu, 2nd Infantry Battalion commander, handed over command to Maj. Ovidiu Uifaleanu, commander 812th Infantry Battalion.

During the past six months, TF Calugareni conducted joint operations as part of TF Zabul with the U.S. 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, C Company and Afghan National Security Forces.

TF Carpathian Hawks, 812th Inf. Battalion join TF Zabul to continue security and stability operations in the region...