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George Cristian Maior, State Secretary and chief of Department for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Defence Policy and John Colston, NATO deputy Secretary General for defence and planning policies made the following statements due to NATO –Romania Reunion on defence planning:
Mister John Colston:
“I am very pleased to be here in Bucharest for the first formal meeting between the planning staffs of NATO military authorities and the authorities of Romania. This is the first such meeting which is taking place since Romanian joined the NATO Alliance early this year and it has been an opportunity for the Romanian authorities and NATO authorities together to review the progress which is been made for the development of the Romanian Armed Forces.
It has been a great pleasure for me to lead this NATO team and to set out our assessment to the Romanian authorities of the progress that has been made.
We have offered a worm welcome from the NATO authorities for the Romania’s continuing strong commitment to NATO and other deployed operations and Romania is in the field of deployed expeditionary operations today. But we have also welcomed the effective plans which Romania has in place to continue to develop the capability of the Romanian Armed Forces to contribute to NATO operations in the future.
Romania is already a strong contributor and we have verified during our visit that plans are in place and the founding is in place to continue to reform the structure of the Romanian Armed Forces and to ensure that there is proper investment in military capability for the future.
So, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to visit Bucharest personally and to express my thanks to Mr. Maior and his team who did a great work”.
Mister George Cristian Maior:
“We are pleased to have as our guest the NATO deputy Secretary General and his NATO team as he already mentioned for the first time here in formal meeting after Romania joined the Alliance.
I think we had a very good talk and talks on working groups on how we are going to contribute with forces to the common defence of the Alliance and to NATO missions in the future.
I think is Romania’s good start within the Alliance as an effective member. We have to keep on this rate, to implement the plans we are discussing together and to increase this philosophy to the entire level of transformation that is applied to the Alliance’s level, too. I assured our friend that regardless our possible evolutions these concerns will continue on our position within NATO, plans, implementation and contribution”.
Dep. for Euro-Atlantic Integration
and Defense Policy