Ioan Mircea Pascu, minister of National Defense met his British counterpart Mr. Geoffrey Hoon Wednesday, April 28, 04 at the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

During the talks they made a presentation of the bilateral relations related to the new status of Romania as a NATO member and our country's process of integration within the European Union supported by Great Britain. They also analyzed the current problems related to the participation of the Romanian military to the military operations in Iraq within the multinational division under the British command. They discussed on the evolution of the situation in this country, minister Pascu stressing on the decision of the Supreme Council of Defence of the Country to continue the mission within the force of stabilization and reconstructure from Iraq.

George Cristian Maior, State Secretary and chief of Department for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Defense Policy, Lieutenant General Ioan Gavril Ghitas, deputy chief of Romanian General Staff as members of the Romanian delegation, after the meeting with Mr. Hook, at the residence of the Romanian ambassador in London, Mr. Dan Ghibernea participated to the sign of the agreement-frame between the Ministry of National Defence and the US Northrop Grumman company.

This agreement, minister Pascu stated after the ceremony, represents an intermediate stage between the memorandum we signed in March at Sinaia and the contract to be made after the American decision on repositioning the military bases. We hope this decision will be in our favor and so we will implement it sooner having in view the fact that the intermediate stages we ‘ve already overpssed. It is about a series of military facilities especially in Dobrogea we are modernizing due to the common effort of this team with the assistance and due to the people the company is disposing with for working with the Romanian companies, too

London, April 28, 2004

Lieutenant Colonel Gelaledin Nezir, MoND Spokesman