November 8, 2016 UPDATE

US Election Day; NATO meeting held in Bucharest on Tuesday

Newsroom, 08.11.2016, 00:05

US ELECTION – Over 145 million registered voters decide on Tuesday who the 45th president of the US will be: the Democrat Hillary Clinton (69) or the Republican Donald Trump (70). The winner will take office in January 2017. In the context of this presidential ballot, the Ambassador of the US to Bucharest, Hans Klemm, has said that over the past 70 years, since World War II, continuity has been a feature of the American foreign policy, and Romania is a strong ally and partner of the US within NATO. According to Hans Klemm, this partnership and alliance will continue, and his responsibility as an ambassador is to make efforts to this end. In turn, the Romanian Foreign Minister, Lazăr Comănescu, has pointed out that Bucharest has every reason to be certain that the American people will make the right choice and that the trans-Atlantic relationship will not only carry on, but will even get stronger.

NATO MEETING – The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, said that the meeting of 9 eastern NATO foreign ministers, held in Bucharest on Tuesday, was scheduled to take place at an important moment. The Alliance, the Romanian President explained, is implementing the decisions of the Warsaw Summit, against the background of a complex security context, marked by a lack of progress in resolving crises as well as by new tensions. Taking part in the meeting in Bucharest were the foreign ministers of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. This summit format was initiated last year, at the initiative of President Klaus Iohannis and his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda. Also attending was the NATO deputy secretary general, Rose Gottemoeller, who has recently taken over the post. In a meeting with President Iohannis, Rose Gottemoeller emphasised that Romania was held in high regard and thanked for the contribution in stabilising Afghanistan. In turn, Klaus Iohannis reiterated Romanias commitment to fulfilling all its obligations as a member of the Alliance.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)