The Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu and the Chief of the General Staff, Admiral Ph.D. Gheorghe Marin participated between February 7 and 8, to the Defence Ministers Informal Reunion of NATO member states, occurred in Vilnius, Lithuania.

During the talks, they approached the important issues with political and military relevance for the preparation of decisions to be adopted during the Bucharest Summit.

The theme of this Reunion was two folded: NATO operations in Kosovo (KFOR) and Afghanistan (ISAF) and the Alliance transformation (rapid reaction force, anti-missile defense, energetic security and defense against the cybernetic attacks).

Minister Melescanu stressed, during the Reunion, on the continuation of the Romanian contribution to KFOR at the present level, with 150 military.

In the same time, Minister Melescanu underlined the necessity for the KFOR mission to be focused, according to its mandate, on the issues of regional security and stability, preserving its neutrality towards the political issues of the region.
Most of the talks, during the Reunion, were focused on ISAF operation, the NATO led operation in Afghanistan.

As for the preparation of debate on the Bucharest Summit issue, they underlined the necessity to develop a vision on NATO involvement in Afghanistan, based on the increase of cohesion within the Alliance in approaching the major issues of security, in the South of Afghanistan, especially, the Afghani armed forces gradual take over of security responsibilities and the increase of coordination with other international organizations.

The Romanian delegation in Vilnius also comprised the Ambassador of Romania to NATO, Sorin Ducaru and the Chief of the Military Representance to NATO and the EU, Lieutenant General Sorin Ioan.

MoD Press Office