During the official visit to France, the Minister of National Defence Mihai Fifor had a meeting with Florence Parly, the French Minister of Defence on Monday, May 28th, when they discussed developing bilateral cooperation and the priorities on NATO and the EU agenda.

The defence minister said that from an allied perspective coherence is required in planning and implementing the allied response in crisis or conflict situations as well as a fair contribution to the common efforts to ensure NATO'sa efficiency and to make the most of the Romanian-French cooperation options in this respect.

In view of preparing the future NATO Summit in Brussels of July, Mihai Fifor stressed the importance of keeping the topic of the security situation at the Black Sea on the agenda of te summit. They discussed about harmonizing of standpoints regarding security on the eastern flank on the occasion of the upcoming defence ministerial of NATO countries to take place over June 7th to 8th.

In this respect, Florence Parly, reassured the Romanian delegation of France's support in ensuring an advanced presence, coherently adapted, in the region.

As Romania will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in January 2019, the two officials assessed the main internal challenges the EU is facing and the priorities both countries have regarding the continuation of advancing the European project on defence. Mihai Fifor stressed the interest of the Romanian side to consolidate projects such as PESCO, EDF and CARD.

The two officials also discussed such topics as the possibility of bilateral cooperation including in the technical-military field and they agreed on continuing discussions on different levels, with a view to developing European defence industries.

The two officials also talked of the importance to continue the political and military dialogue on topics of mutual interest on NATO and the EU agenda with a view to harmonizing national positions.

The Press Office