On Monday, October 31, the first day of the Multinational Ballistic Missile Defence Conference which takes place in London, defence minister Mihnea Motoc held a speech where he mentioned the most important elements of the cooperation between Romania and the USA in the missile defence field with focus on having rendered the Deveselu Base operational.

In this respect, the Romanian official emphasized Romania's important role in achieving ballistic missile defence capability at Allied level by hosting the US deployed elements in Europ , which led to a significant increase of the of the NATO BMD system's coverage area and to the declaration of the Initial Operational Capability during the Warsaw Summit. Minister Motoc highlighted again the defensive character of the capability, that is to protect NATO population and territory from the threats posed from the outside of the Euro-Atlantic space.

The Romanian defence minister received "David R. Israel" annual prize on behalf of the Ministry of National Defence, for meritorious results in the ballistic missile defence field and as recognition of Romania's efforts and active involvement in rendering Deveselu Base operational.

As part of the conference, defence minister had a meeting with Vice Admiral James D. Syring, Director of the Missile Defence Agency. During the meeting, the Romanian official reiterated Romania's solid commitment in the field of ballistic missile defence, with an important role in the current security environment by emphasizing the fact that the common project in the BMD field led to the increase of Romania's and Euro-Atlantic space security and to the strengthening of the Romanian-US Strategic Partnership. The defence minister also reiterated Romania's support to further develop the European component of the US ballistic missile defence system as a strategic project which strengthens the trans-Atlantic relation between the European allies and the USA, both at bilateral plan and within NATO.

Press Department