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Mircea Dușa: "We stay strongly committed politically and operationally to our allies to meet NATO-s security and defence goals"
Present at Defence Ministerial, Minister Mircea Dușa conveyed to allies and the other members of the ISAF coalition the message that Romanian authorities continue to be committed to NATO`s involvement in stabilizing Afghanistan post-2014 and consider it Romania`s main operational engagement abroad.
On Thursday, the defence ministers discussed the stage of implementing the decisions agreed at last years Chicago Summit regarding defence, cyber attacks, missile defence, the implementation of allied reforms and reviewing common financing of NATO.
As for the negative impact of the continuous cuts of defence resources in NATO member countries, Minister Dușa briefed the allies on the last decision of the Supreme Council of National Defence to annually increase the defence budget with 0.3 percent of the GDP. The increase will allow meeting NATO requirement to ensure a defence budget of 2 percent of the GDP by 2016.
The working session in ISAF format was dedicated to recent developments and perspectives of the operation and transition process that will come at a crossroads in the spring of this year, when the last provinces and districts will be transferred to Afghan authorities. The defence ministers also discussed relocating ISAF troops and equipment from the Afghan theater of operations and the planning process for the post-2014 training and assistance mission (Resolute Support).
Another topic on the Defence Ministerss agenda was NATO-Ukraine defence cooperation. In the NATO-Ukraine Commission, the Romanian official delegation expressed Romania`s support for Ukraine in its defence-related reforms.
The Romanian delegation included the chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General, Ștefan Dănilă and the general director of the Department for Defence Policy and Planning, Șerban Lungu.
MoND Press Office