The Minister of National Defence, Gabriel Les and the chief of General Staff, General Nicolae Ciuca, met with General Riho Terras, the Estonian Chief of Defence, at the defence ministry, on Tuesday, April 4, during the latter's visit to Romania.


The defence minister and the Estonian official discussed ways of enhancing bilateral military cooperation and the cooperation within the Alliance.

The two officials stressed the importance of the measures to implement the allied forward position on the eastern flank and the decisions taken at the defence ministerial in Brussels, in February, on enhancing the allied maritime presence in the Black Sea, a zone with an essential role for the security and stability of the entire Alliance.

The Romanian minister spoke highly of the Estonian Center of Excellence on Cyber Defence, and its special role in developing the protection concepts and mechanisms against cyber threats, also by hosting some important NATO exercises of the kind.

During his meeting with the chief of General Staff, the officials discussed regional security and allied developments in strengthening the allied forward presence on NATO's eastern flank, with a view to accomplishing cohesion and efficiency of efforts within the Alliance.

The two chiefs of defence discussed bilateral military relations and their perspectives, the certification exercise of VJTF 17 and the Estonian and Romanian contributions to accomplishing eFP and tFP on NATO eastern flank along the land, air and navy component. The Romanian side briefed on the operational stage of the Multinational Brigade, within the framework of implementing the decisions made in Warsaw.

General Ciuca noted that, in the current security context, the visit was a good opportunity to strengthen and promote Romanian-Estonian military relations.

Press Department