Defence Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca and the Chief of the Romanian Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, met with The Chief of Defence Staff from Montenegro , Brigadier General Milutin Djuroviae on Wednesday, 2nd June.

The visit paid by the military official from Montenegro took place over 31st May-2nd June, following the invitation of Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, in the margin of the Joint Allied Power Demonstration Day sequence of NOBLE JUMP 21 / STEADFAST DEFENDER 21 NATO Exercise.

During the meetings, the officials approached the status and ways to develop bilateral cooperation relations, regional security, measures to consolidate allied deterrence and defence posture as well as the commitments made by the two states within the regional initiatives, with focus on the format of the Chiefs of Staff Conference from the Balkans.

Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca told the Montenegrin official that Romania is open to military cooperation proposals that can bring benefits to the regional and European security, the two states having a solid cooperation relation in joint and Special Operations Forces training.

Another subject tackled by the two delegations was the two armed forces' contribution to the NATO and EU-led missions and operations, the meeting being an opportunity to evaluate the training level and the regional security situation. At regional level, Romania and Montenegro collaborate together within the South-Eastern Defence Ministerial Initiative (SEDM) a regional initiative which contributes to the peace-keeping and strengthening of the stability and security relations in South-Eastern Europe. In this context, minister Ciuca emphasized the fact that the active promotion of our country as a stability factor in the region is one of the major foreign policy objectives established in the national strategic papers.

Romania and Montenegro aim at ensuring Euro-Atlantic security and consider that the extension of its relations with the allies and partner states from the South-Eastern Europe is a key-element of this objective.

We wish to increase the level of cooperation between the two armed forces through an increased participation in the joint training activities. The participation of the Montenegrin colleagues in the DACIA 21 LIVEX allied exercise, conducted over May-June, stands for the prof of a good collaboration. We invited our Montenegrin allies to participate in the Joint Allied Training Program from Romania, including by ensuring them the access to our modern simulation training facilities, and the joint training exercises in order to achieve interoperability of forces an improve our reaction capability, Stated the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu.

Romania supports the accession process of the Republic of Montenegro to the European Union whose endstate will lead to the consolidation of security in the Balkans. In this context, the military officials reiterated the fact that constant participation in the EU operations and missions represents both an argument within the process of respecting the commitments assumed by the two allied states and a more visible profile within the EU.

At the end of the talks, the three officials said that the political-military dialogue will continue over the following period by means of the technical working groups which will initiate new collaboration opportunities that will further develop the already existing bilateral cooperation fields.

The Press Office