On the first day of the NATO Defence Ministerial, defence minister Gabriel Les participated in two working sessions within Allied framework - the first on dealt with the evolutions and implications for the Alliance with respect to the Intermediate-Nuclear Forces Treaty and the second one focused on the implementation of the deterrence and defence posture.

During the talks, the ministers expressed their concern with regard to Russia's continuous development of the SSC-8 missile system, thus breaching the INF Treaty. The officials reiterated the fact that this is a significant risk against the Euro-Atlantic security and that NATO will continue to maintain a credible and efficient deterrence and defence posture. The central elements of the talks was the identification of the implications of Russia's breaching of the Treaty and the way the Alliance must adapt to this new situation.

On the other hand, the Allied defence ministers highlighted the progress made in the implementation of the decisions made at the last Allied summits, including the one which took place in Brussels, on July 2018, and established political lines of actions in the fields characterized by implementation delays.

Aspects referring to the implementation of the NATO Readiness Initiative/NRI and the Reinforcement concept were debated during the reunion. Also, the officials adopted the 2019 Political Guidance, an essential document on the defence planning guidance within NATO, on a four-year period.

On the first day of the reunion, an important and visible element on the Allied agenda was the equitable burden sharing. Thus, during the working dinner, the officials emphasized the importance of the national plans regarding the implementation of the Defence Investment Pledge DIP adopted at the 2014 Wales Summit on all its three dimensions - Cash-Capabilities-Contributions. In this context, Romania restated its commitment for allocating 2% of the GDP for defence expenditures and maintaining this level for the following years.

The Press Office