As part of the NATO Defence Ministers Meetings, minister Gabriel Les had a bilateral meeting with his Polish counterpart, Antoni Macierewicz, on Wednesday, February 15.

The meeting was an opportunity to increase dialogue on the Strategic Partnership between Romania and Poland on bilateral cooperation both in the field of defence and within NATO.

The Romanian defence minister emphasized the importance of coordinating the efforts in order to implement the Warsaw Summit decisions, especially with respect to NATO's enhanced forwarded presence on the territory of both countries. In this respect, both parties agreed upon intensifying military contacts to ensure the respecting of the commitments made to the allied structures hosted by Romania and Poland, consisting in military units and staff officers.

The two ministers highlighted the commitment of making maximum use of the Strategic Partnership framework in order to intensify relations in the field of defence (especially by participating in multinational exercises and other force training activities) as well as in the fields of military intelligence, air force and ballistic missile defence. Poland restated its commitment to deploy to our country certain combat aircraft in order to participate in air poling missions and joint training activities with the Romanian Air Force. In this respect, the increased collaboration between the two countries' NATO Centers of Excellence was emphasized.

The Polish defence minister welcomed his counterpart's invitation of paying an official visit to Romania this spring in order to talk about the bilateral cooperation projects.

Press Department