Defence Ministers from the NATO member countries exchanged opinions on the developments of the missions conducted in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq during the working session dedicated to the NATO missions and operations, on Thursday, February 14.


Minister Gabriel Les pointed out the importance of supporting the Afghan peace keeping process, insisting on the fact that this must be totally assumed by the Afghan authorities, with the support of the North-Atlantic Alliance. Also, the defence minister mentioned the increase of Romanian troops participating in Resolute Support Mission in 2019, with a total of over 800 servicemen in the theaters of operations, a significant contribution which places our country among the top troop contributors.

The last working session of the Defence Ministers Meeting , with the participation of the High representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, as well as the representatives of Sweden and Finland, focused on aspects related to the NATO-EU defence cooperation, paying special attention on the initiatives that can enhance the Strategic Partnership between the two organizations and transforming this line of action into an essential element of the package of measures aiming at consolidating security at European level.

Minister Gabriel Les emphasized the fact that the transparency, complementarity, inclusiveness and elimination of parallelisms must be primary lines of actions when consolidating cooperation between the two organizations. Also, minister Les highlighted the fact that a key priority of Romania, inclusively by holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, aims at consolidating the NATO-EU relation, respectively maintaining a solid and functional trans-Atlantic relation.

The Press Office