The Minister of National Defence, Mihnea Motoc, will participate in NATO Defence Ministerial, in Brussels, over June 14 to 15.

The meeting takes place three weeks prior to NATO Summit in Warsaw and aims at preparing the decisions to be adopted by the heads of state and government. The topics of a particular interest to Romania include the defence and deterrence posture, the allied presence on the eastern flank of the Alliance and NATO commitment in Afghanistan.

The Defence Ministers will discuss and agree on the ways of consolidating the allied defence and deterrence posture, especially the specific measures of the allied enhanced forward presence along the entire eastern flank of NATO, the implementation of the Readiness Action Plan on increasing NATO's operational capacity, as well as cyber security and ensuring the necessary defence budget and development of defence capabilities.

Together with the EU representatives of Finland and Sweden, topics of common interest will be approached, such as improving the NATO — EU cooperation and increasing the allied contribution to the effort of the international community to ensure stability, with a focus on developing the partners' capabilities.

On the second day of the meeting, the defence ministers will assess Ukraine's progress in implementing the security and defence reforms and will agree on the Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine, for its further endorsement by the heads of state and government at the Summit in Warsaw. Over the two days, the Romanian Defence Minister's agenda includes bilateral meetings with counterparts from Bulgaria, Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine, when they will discuss topics related to the upcoming summit and defence cooperation.

Press Department