The Minister of National Defence Gabriel Les had a meeting with H.E. Tamar Samash, the Ambassador of Israel to Bucharest, on Monday, April 3, upon the latter's request.

The Romanian defence minister stressed the priviledged character of the bilateral relations based on converging strategic interests and shared values. He noted that there is a significant potential for enhancing cooperation in fields such as forces training, consolidation of the strategic dialogue and technical and military cooperation.

The Romanian official spoke of the Romanian procurement priorities in the context of the two percent of the GDP allotted for defence and highlighted the cooperation opportunities deriving from here, including dual use goods, civilian and military.

The two delegations discussed the positive aspects of the military delegation that visited Israel at the beginning of March and agreed on the need to implement in a timely manner the activities in the Bilateral Plan of Cooperation and the Plan of Military and Technical Cooperation. They also discussed resuming the negotiations on the Status of Forces Agreement between the defence ministries of the two countries.

Press Department