The Minister of National Defence, Gabriel Les, welcomed the ambassador of France to Bucharest, H.E. Francois Saint-Paul, on Tuesday, March 14.

The meeting was a good opportunity to reassert the special bilateral relation between Romania and France, in terms of their Strategic Partnership. The two officials discussed topics of mutual interest, among which the European security situation within NATO and the EU, also in bilateral context.

The talks focused on the EU priorities on defence and security, especially the current issues high on the EU agenda Permanent Structured Cooperation, the permanent command and planning structure, the coordinated annual review of the defence, with focus on the decisions made at the latest EU Council meeting in early March.

Both sides affirmed their commitment to strengthen bilateral cooperation relations in the current security context by identifying and taking further concrete ways of developing military cooperation between the two countries, in fields such as military intelligence, joint training and participation in international missions and operations, special operations forces, as well as cooperation opportunities in the technical and military field.

The two officials agreed on the need to continue consultations on the current topics of interest at European level and of mutual interest on the agenda of bilateral cooperation on defence.

Press Department