BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s top defense body has approved a €9.8 billion (U.S. $11.5 billion) spending plan for the next decade and has pledged to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense, as NATO requests of its members.

The Supreme Defence Council met Tuesday and agreed to spend the money to upgrade the country’s military from 2017-2026.

Last week, Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu said Romania would buy Patriot missiles worth $3.9 billion from the United States.

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The Romanian armed forces conduct a river crossing exercise on the Danube as part of the U.S. Army Europe’s Black Sea region exercise Saber Guardian. Overnight, Romanian units secured both sides of the river, pushing enemy forces out of machine gun and artillery fire range and built a pontoon float bridge across under the cover of darkness. One bridge section remained, and the bridge was completed during the exercise on the morning of July 16. (Jen Judson/Staff)

Parliament needs to pass a law that would allow the acquisition. The U.S. State Department approved the sale in July, saying it would help to “improve the security of a NATO ally.”

The U.S. has increased its presence in Eastern Europe with regular training exercises to reassure NATO’s European allies after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014.

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