On Tuesday, 12th May Defence Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca participated in the informal reunion /videoconference of the Foreign Affairs Council in the EU Defence Ministers Format.

The videoconference was chaired by the High Representative of The EU for Foreign Affairs and Defence Policy, Josep Borell Fontelles, with the participation of NATO's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, and UN Undersecretary for Peace-keeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

During the talks, the officials debated on the lessons learned and strategic implications which the COVID-19 crisis had on the EU defence and security but also on potential courses of actions to be followed to efficiently manage the issues emerged both at operational level and the level of the state members.

The Romanian defence minister pleaded for EU's solidarity, stating that only staying together can ensure a coherent answer to the effects generated by the current crisis. Thus, Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca reiterated the importance of taking measures to combat the misinformation and emphasized the need to continue multilateral approach in order to enhance cooperation among the member states but also with the key partners, such as NATO and UN.

The state members took into consideration the fact that the European initiative on (PESCO) can stand for the necessary framework that can generate projects that can increase EU's training and resilience. The approach on civil-military cooperation in the context of a pandemics or major medical crisis can be done during the future review of PESCO.

The Press Office