Defence Minister’s meeting with his counterpart from the Slovak Republic

Minister of National Defence, Radu Miruță, had a meeting with Robert Kaliňák, his counterpart from the Slovak Republic, on Friday, March 27. The meeting took place in the context of the official visit paid to Romania by the Slovak Prime Minister, at the invitation of the Romanian Prime Minister.

 

The talks between the two officials focused on bilateral defence cooperation, as well as on the coordination of positions within the European Union and NATO. In this context, the Minister of National Defence reiterated Romania's continued participation with forces in NATO Battle Group Slovakia.

 

An important element of the discussion was the consolidation of the technological and industrial defence base, through the initiation of discussions on collaboration in the field of the arms industry and identification of solutions to increase the production capacity of ammunition and military vehicles.

 

In this regard, the officials proposed to organize expert-level meetings. "Our specialists will go to Slovakia to identify equipment, technology and production facilities, and Slovak specialists will travel to Romania, where they will learn about potential manufacturing locations and technological cooperation," Minister Miruță said.

 

During the meeting, Minister Kaliňák expressed Slovakia's support for the continuation of the SAFE program, including Romania's proposal to include in the future financing mechanisms for the defense industry (a potential SAFE 2) a regulation that would comprise the exact mapping of current industrial facilities in each member state - industrial, logistic, testing or storage - correlated with Europe’s real needs, and their direct introduction into the program.

 

Furthermore, this proposal was presented by Minister Miruță during the meeting with EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, which took place in early March.

 

 At the end of the meeting, the two officials reaffirmed the importance of the Allied deterrence and defence posture on the Eastern Flank, as well as the need to ensure complementarity between the measures taken at European level and those adopted within allied context.

The Press Office