Information and Public Relations Directorate
E-mail: presamapn@mapn.ro
Contact: 021-319.60.22
Monday, December 8, 2003 minister of National Defense Ioan Mircea Pascu at the British MoD headquarters had talks with Geoffrey Hoon State Secretary for Defense. The two officials reviewed the bilateral defense relations and the main areas of strategic interest, mainly in the Black Sea region.
Minister Pascu thanked for the support Great Britain granted to Romania during the process of reform of the military body and joint to NATO. In the same time they also analyzed the problems related to the participation of the Romanian military in Iraq within the multinational division under the British command. It also existed an exchange of opinions on the evolutions in Afghanistan having in view the interest for stability in this country.
Approaching the European defense issue, minister Pascu stressed on the fact that for Romania the security is indivisible, the relation between NATO and EU having a character of complementarity not a competition one.
The officials also discussed about the agenda of the bilateral cooperation for the next year and the two countries’ contributions to NATO important projects in the perspective of the Istanbul Summit in 2004.
MoND Press Office