Minister of National Defence, Gabriel Oprea, State Secretary for Defense Policy and Planning, Viorel Oancea and chief of General Staff, Admiral Gheorghe Marin, Ph.D. received the official visit of a military delegation headed by General Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The official talks were focused on the bilateral military cooperation, Romanian participation in international operations and the defence cooperation for identifying the common solutions to the present security challenges. The talks also were related to the Romanian Armed Forces integration within NATO and EU's military structures and the Armed Forces' modernization, too.
Having in view the 60 years of diplomatic relations between Romanian and the People's Republic of China, the Minister of National Defence spoke about the importance of the traditional Romanian-Chinese friendship. Mister Gabriel Oprea also spoke about the opening we had for military cooperation with China. "We are interested to strengthen bilateral military relations, even on education and common training exercises, such that exercise we had home, last year, as with the Mountain Troops and we wish to increase the political-military dialogue at the two armed forces' level".
The Minister was pleased to announce the establishment of a Laboratory of Chinese Language, within the Foreign Languages Department of the National Defence University; the lab is the first of its kind in the South Eastern Europe with the possibility to transform it in a Regional Center of Chinese Language.
Admiral Gheorghe Marin, chief of General Staff, spoke about the increase of Romanian-Chinese military cooperation: "In the last years we increased the plans of cooperation within our armies. We do have common training exercises - we organized such an exercise in Romania, last year and this year we are going to have one in China - we have the programmes of exchange of students and we also have common activities on military topography". Speaking about the future, Admiral Marin expressed the interest in cooperating with the Chinese army in new areas, too; the exchange of expertise on the presence in theaters of operations and cooperating with the Navy; the Chinese partner is invited to participate with a ship in the Passex exercise, this year, in Constanta.
General Ma Xiaotian appreciated the excellent relations between Romania and the People's Republic of China, stressing out the well known friendship and the good relations the two countries had, along the years, based on principles of equality and mutual respect."We are concerned, like you, to strengthen and increase the bilateral military relations as an important part of the two countries' cooperation" the Chinese guest said during his meeting with Minister Gabriel Oprea.
The Chinese military delegation will visit the National Defence University "Carol I" and will inaugurate the Chinese Language Laboratory.
The Chinese delegation in official visit in Romania, between January 30 and February 2, was invited by the deputy chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Stefan Oprea.

MoND Press Office