Today, 30 January, athe MoND headquarters, Defence Minister Gabriel Les had bilateral meetings with the UN Under Secretary General for Peace-keeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, and the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency, Jorge Domecq.

The meetings were part of the Informal Meeting of the EU Defence Ministers, which takes place in Bucharest over 30-31 January, in the context of Romania's holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Minister of National Defence officially thanked the UN official for his participation in the reunion and restated our country's commitment to working in close cooperation with international organizations it is part of UN, NATO and the European Union. Romania is fully committed to support peaceful solutions to all crises the international community is facing nowadays, such as it has done for the last 27 years, when is has been contributing with troops in the missions conducted under the aegis of the UN. Since 1991 up to present, almost 10,000 Romanian soldiers have taken part in such 25 missions, in various areas worldwide, Gabriel Les emphasized.

Also, the defence minister stated that Romania was previously a non-permanent member in the UN Security Council for four mandates and that it submitted its candidature for a new mandate for the 2020-2021 timeframe.

In this context, the Romanian official reminded that our country will continue to contribute to the international peace-keeping efforts, an important example in this respect being Romanian Armed Forces' participation with an airlift helicopter detachment to MINUSMA Operation, from Mali, starting October 2019.

At the end of the meeting with the UN official, defence minister restated that Romania, while holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, will support the reinforcement of the EU-UN strategic partnership on peace operations and crisis management.

The second bilateral meeting between minister Les and Chief Executive Domecq, focused on the collaboration between Romania and the European Defence Agency. We are aware that the EDA, will hold an important role in the current context, focused on the consolidation of the EU's role on security and defence, in full coordination with NATO, minister of national defence added.

The two officials exchanged opinions on the development perspectives of the Common Defence and Security Policy, with focus on ensuring coherence in all the initiatives that have been launched in the last couple of years (PESCO, CARD, EDF). Also, the major responsibilities brought along by Romania's Presidency of the Council of EU in the field of security and defence as well as the events co-organized with the EDA in the near future, in Bucharest.

The Press Office