Nicuşor Dan defends the SAFE contracts with Rheinmetall: “I have no suspicion that any of the SAFE contracts would have any problem”

President Nicuşor Dan said on Tuesday that he currently has no suspicions regarding the contracts concluded through the SAFE program, including the agreement with Rheinmetall, amid public discussions and the announced checks concerning these documents.

The head of state said that the SAFE process was a complex one and that he had been informed about the negotiations, the evaluation of bids and the equipment involved. Nicuşor Dan specified that he did not know whether the value of the contract was exactly 5.7 billion euros, but he knew that a substantial sum was to go to Rheinmetall.

Asked whether certain documents could be made public, the president said: “Obviously, any kind of inquiry is welcome. A criminal investigation does not mean anything, it means something; a criminal investigation means that someone has filed a complaint and the Prosecutor’s Office has begun investigating. At present, I have no suspicion that any of the SAFE contracts might have a problem.”

Nicuşor Dan also said that he did not have information about the number of jobs created in Romania through SAFE, but considers the public debate useful. He stressed that the Government and the ministries must monitor compliance with the obligations undertaken by companies, recalling that, in the past, offset-type commitments were sometimes signed but not implemented.

“History tells us that, many times, Romania signed contracts for the supply of equipment, military equipment, and the companies with which we signed undertook so-called offset obligations, but, in practice, nothing happened,” the president said.

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