The visit of the Minister of National Defence Dimitris Avramopoulos to Romania was completed. Mr. Avramopoulos conducted talks with his counterpart Mircea Dusa. The official lunch hosted by the Romanian Minister of Defence to the honour of the Minister of National Defence was also attended by the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA) Claude-France Arnould, who pays an official visit to Bucharest. The Minister of National Defence met also Romania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Titus Corlatean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest.
After their meeting at Romania’s Defence Ministry, Mr. Avramopoulos and Mr. Dusa addressed the following statements:
M. DUSA (unofficial translation from Romanian): We have with us the Minister of National Defence of the Hellenic Republic with whom I would like to continue the talks about the cooperation of the two countries and particularly the cooperation between the two ministries and our armies.
The relations between Greeks and Romanians are very old; they are lost in the dark depth of the past. The relations between us are at an excellent level, especially with the constant support of Greece to Romania’s accession to the European Union and NATO. We are two countries with common objectives. We are too an oasis of stability in this region, as NATO and EU state-members, Greece is in the South and Romania in the East.
We discussed about the situation of our region at a military level due to the critical situation in Ukraine.
We also discussed the political situation in Southern Europe taking into account the instability in the countries of Northern Africa.
This is why we want the European Union and NATO to share common objectives in the Summit in Wales, objectives that will ensure stability and peace in Southern and in Eastern Europe.
We honour the measures taken by the North-Atlantic Council for the security of Greece’s air and naval space.
We also honour the strategy of maritime security of the European Union and NATO and we have supported the principle of maritime security, a balanced maritime security which will cover the Mediterranean, as well as Black Sea.
We discussed the bilateral relations, as well as the military cooperation between the Armed Forces, the Navy, the Air Force and the Land Forces.
We have scheduled to widen our memorandum so as to include more objectives of bilateral cooperation, so that both states will be a common significant factor of security.
We also discussed about defence and security problems in the European Union and the programmes which we prepare and promote in common.
We discussed also about the regional policy in the western sector and the stability in the Balkans, especially in this region in Romania which holds the presidency which we mentioned before. And we proposed common more effective measures to the benefit of all these states in this region.
We also discussed about the support to Moldova’s European course as a factor of stability and peace in our region.
We will remain in contact with the Minister of National Defence as we prepare ourselves to support these common objectives in the Summit in Wales.
We, finally, congratulate the Minister for the manner in which Greece exercised the six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Minister, please, you may have the floor.
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: Firstly, I would like to thank my friend and colleague Defence Minister of Romania, Mr. Mircea Dusa, for his hospitality.
This meeting comes to confirm once more the excellent level of relations between the two countries and particularly in the field of defence, as a natural continuation of the strong historic bonds which date back to the past – he said characteristically “which are lost in the dark depths of the past”- but – he will agree with me – which are also projected in the light of our common future. We are two peoples, two nations who have lived here for centuries in the most sensitive and turbulent region of Europe.
By updating this constant excellent cooperation we adapt it ti the needs of our time and to our common European and Euro-Atlantic perspective.
We are countries that serve International Law, security, stability and peaceful cooperation with every country and every people of our region. And in this line of instability which starts from Tunisia and ends in Ukraine we remain stable and stabilizing factors.
We decided to move on together, undertaking common initiatives – if necessary – to establish an axis of stability from the northern part of the Balkans to the South, aiming at creating a real oasis of security and safety for the whole region.
We decided to upgrade and reinforce our defence cooperation by signing a series of memoranda of cooperation within the next month, which will be culminated by Minister’s visit to Athens and by upgrading the already existent defence agreement between the two countries.
We are getting prepared for the Summit to be held in Wales next September, probably the most important NATO Summit of the two last decades. There security matters regarding the entire world will be discussed. There Greece and Romania will express common positions on issues relevant to Ukraine, to the crisis in Middle East, in Eastern Mediterranean, as well as on issues regarding our wider region in general.
But also through initiatives related to the European security strategy and, as Minister rightly said, to maritime security, in which Greece has long experience, since it is one of the most powerful maritime forces in the world.
At last, we declared the main principle and position of our countries’ governments about stable frontiers in the whole area.
All our initiatives, our entire cooperation serve one and only objective: peace, progress, growth, prosperity for our peoples and a particularly hopeful future for the tormented Balkan peninsula.
Therefore, our two countries rise as stability and security factors thanks to our defence systems which are powerful and ready.
We are inspired mostly by modern European views, away from extremisms, past nationalisms, which unfortunately come back as a threat, not only in our region, but all over Europe.
As a conclusion, I wish to invite again my good friend to visit Greece soon to enjoy our hospitality too, as well as for us to promote even further the common decisions we made today.
I thank him.