On a trip to Romania on Wednesday as part of a Black
\nSea tour that also included Georgia and Ukraine, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin
\nhad talks with his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 about strengthening allied
\ncooperation to discourage Russia’s hostile actions in the region. Lloyd said
\nthe US would continue to provide assistance to consolidate the maritime capabilities
\nof several countries, including Romania, stressing that Back Sea security and
\nstability are also in his country’s national interest and are critical with
\nrespect to the security of NATO’s eastern flank. He explained that there is a
\nvulnerability here to Russian aggression, as seen from what is happening in
\neastern Ukraine and the occupation of parts of Georgia, the militarisation of
\nthe Black Sea and the provocative actions on air and at sea. Lloyd said Russia’s
\ndestabilising actions in the Black Sea area reflect its ambitions to regain a dominant
\nposition in the region and prevent the creation of a united, free and peaceful
\nEurope. He also stressed that his country would continue to work with its
\npartners in the region. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian defence minister reiterated that the Back
\nSea is and will continue to be an important pillar of European and
\nEuro-Atlantic security and spoke about the strategic partnership with the US
\nand the joint positions identified together with his counterpart with respect
\nto NATO’s adjustment to current challenges. Nicolae Ciuc\u0103:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We want the Alliance to remain strong and capable to
\nprotect its members and address their concerns, so for Romania the
\ntrans-Atlantic relationship remains an important pillar of our defence policy. We
\nwill continue bilateral consultations. The objectives are clear: we need to
\nconsolidate our positions in the run-up to the summit of June 2022 and to be
\nable to implement the important projects on the agenda of bilateral cooperation
\nin the field of defence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin also had talks with
\npresident Klaus Iohannis about the importance of a solid trans-Atlantic
\nrelationship so as to be able to manage common security challenges. The Romanian
\npresident gave assurances that his country would continue to be a reliable
\nstrategic partner and ally and stay committed to the political and military consolidation
\nof the North-Atlantic Alliance, including NATO’s deterrence and defence posture
\non its eastern flank and the Black Sea region. The US official also paid tribute
\nto the Romanian military who served in Afghanistan and visited the military base
\nin Mihail Kog\u0103lniceanu, in south-eastern Romania. (CM)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin travelled to Bucharest ahead of NATO meeting in Brussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":90160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29621,13794],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-defence","tag-nato"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n