Joint press conference

Thank you so much Prime Minister Mihai Tudose and it’s really a great pleasure to meet you for the first time. And since this is our first meeting let me also congratulate you on your appointment as Prime Minister this summer. I’m looking forward to working with you and to cooperate with you in the NATO Alliance.

And I would also very much like to express my gratitude to Romania for its steadfast contributions to NATO in so many ways over so many years. You contribute to our collective security here in Europe and you also help NATO projecting stability through our neighbourhood both in the East and the South, helping Ukraine, helping Georgia, but also fighting terrorism to the South of the Alliance with your presence in Afghanistan, in Iraq, but also helping to make sure that the Western Balkans remain stable with your contribution to the NATO force in Kosovo.

Then Romania is important for NATO because you are a host nation for our multinational brigade here in Romania. We are stepping up the NATO presence in Romania with both the multinational brigade but also with more air policing. Italian and Canadian pilots are flying together with pilots from Romania and Bulgaria in the Black Sea region. And we have increased maritime presence in the Black Sea with more port calls and more naval exercises.

So this is an example of how NATO is adapting to a more challenging security environment.

Romania is also important because you are hosting our missile defence site in Deveselu which is important for NATO defence and we are now implementing and following up on the plans for strengthening the NATO Defence Capabilities by building a similar site in Poland so the missile defence system is a high priority for NATO.

We are also grateful for what Romania does when it comes to cyber defence, your experts, your knowledge are important for the whole Alliance. But also because Romania is leading our Cyber Defence Trust Fund for Ukraine helping them to strengthen their cyber defences.

And then last but not least, Romania is key when it comes to defence spending. Your announcement to spend 2% of GDP on defence in 2017 this year is something we really welcome because it will strengthen the defences of Romania but it will also of course strengthen NATO and Romania is leading by example because I can now refer to Romania being a new country in the Alliance which is meeting the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence. So you’re leading by example and we thank you so much for that.

So Mr Prime Minister, once again thank you for receiving me and thank you for Romania’s strong contributions to the Alliance.