Minister of National Defence, Teodor Atanasiu and his Greek counterpart Spilios Spiliotopoulos conveyed appreciation today, in Athens, at the level of military cooperation between the two countries, mentioning that the bilateral activities between Greece and Romania had developed and increased lately.

The two ministers agreed that the Multinational Brigade South Eastern Europe, SEEBRIG must be operationalized for participation in military actions in the theaters of operations in Afghanistan or the Balkans. The Defence Ministers of the states contributing with troops in the multinational force will analyze the operational requirements for a possible mission and the partition of participation costs.

Regarding NATO enlargement, the Greek minister appreciated that Greece subscribes to the initiatives Romania supported for enlarging the Active Endeavouroperations in the Black Sea observing the international treaties and conventions.

Atanasiu considers that NATO must play a more important role in the Black Sea region, forbidding the traffic of persons, drugs and arms that can become sources of financing terrorist activities.

Another issue of talks was the defence industry in the two states. Atanasiu appreciated that it is very important for the two countries to identify markets for the military products, especially due to the fact that both of the armed forces want the involvement of the native firms in equipping their own armed forces. Minister Spiliotopoulos mentioned that there are very big possibilities of this cooperation increase for the two parts benefit.

The two ministers also talked about the three Romanian officers who will be appointed within NATO Command in Thessaloniki in the near future.

MoND Press Office