The Minister of National Defence, Gabriel Oprea and the US Ambassador to Romania, Mark Gitenstein, signed an agreement at the defence ministry headquarters, on Wednesday, December 14, for the amendment of the "Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Romania concerning Measures for the Protection of Classified Military Information, done at Washington on June 21, 1995 ".

With the change in the Romanian legislation on classified military information and following the provisions of the Agreement, the Romanian Ministry of National Defence showed intention and willingness in discussing updating those provisions to the Romanian legislation and to further cooperation in the field.

In his speech following signing the document, minister Gabriel Oprea stated: "Under the circumstances, the provisions of the `Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Romania concerning Measures for the Protection of Classified Military Information, done at Washington on June 21, 1995` had to be updated according to the realities defining our common operations, in support of the wide effort of the international community to fight terror, in defence of our highest values - Freedom and Democracy".

In reviewing the evolution of military bilateral relations, minister Gabriel Oprea highlighted that: "The American forces present in Romanian facilities, our common participation in missions in the theater of operations in Afghanistan, as well as the deployment of a United States Ballistic Missile Defense System in the territory of Romania, show how dynamic the relations between of two armed forces and countries are.
This Agreement is one more proof of our commitment to stand by the obligations assumed in warranting the security of information conveyed by the US Defense Department to the Romanian Ministry of National Defence, in implementing the provisons of the United States Romanian Strategic Partnership, taking into account the ongoing flow of information, mostly military, between our countries. I am confident that military relations of Romania and the USA will develop further
Minister Gabriel Oprea reaffirmed his gratitude for the real and so very important support the American allies offered Romanian troops in Afghanistan: "Our troops are now better protected due to the 75 fully-equipped MRAPs. Since they started using these remarkable vehicles, the very same the American forces are using, the death toll has known a significant decrease and, God be willing, we hope to never have any more such incidents".

His Excellency, the US Ambassador to Romania, Mark Gitenstein said that:"While this Agreement is somewhat technical, dealing with security classifications it is, needless to say, very important. It has to do with maintenance of classified information in an effort to reconcile the different standards in classification that our countries use."
Ambassador Gitenstein emphasized the importance of a common understanding of how classified information is to be treated as it is critical for the exchange of technology, especially in the context of the discussions on some strategic acquisitions.

Within the military cooperation between Romania and the United States of America, with a view to setting the legal framework neccesary to protect higly classified military information that may subject to exchange between the Romanian Ministry of National Defence and the Us Department of Defense, an agreement was signed in Washington, on June 21, 1995 - "Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Romania concerning Measures for the Protection of Classified Military Information.

MoND Press Office