The Minister of National Defence, Mircea Dusa, met with his counterpart from theRepublic of Moldova, Mr. Viorel Cibotaru, at the defence ministry, on Tuesday, May 19.The Moldavian defence minister makes an official visit in Romania over May 19 and20.

Today's meeting takes the political and military dialogue of our countries to a higherlevel, being a good opportunity to share opinions on the stage and perspective ofbilateral military cooperation and multilateral cooperation, Minister Dusa said.

Mircea Dusa spoke of the common training activities of the two armed forces salutingthe presence of the Infantry, Artillery and CBRN defence units from the Republic ofMoldova at the training exercises for conventional operations, saying he hoped suchcooperation would continue.

I consider we could put the experience gained by the Romanian military duringmultinational exercises and missions to best use at bilateral level, so that we couldemploy the same procedures during peacekeeping missions, the defence minister said.

Minister Dusa emphasized our endorsement for the technical and material assistanceoffered for the consolidation of the defence capability of the Republic of Moldova, asprovided by the Initiative to Consolidate Defence Capabilities, and the counseling onthe methodology of drafting the legal papers that are specific for logistics.

The two officials talked of the participation of the Republic of Moldova in the regionalinitiatives, its becoming a full member of the SEDM process as well as the findingsolutions to facilitate the involvement of the Republic of Moldova in EU-led missions.

The agenda of Minister Viorel Cibotaru includes also visits to the Ministry of ForeignAffairs, Deputy Chamber, Carol I National Defence University and the MilitaryTechnical Academy.

MoND Press Office