Three major North-American corporations with operations in the defense industry have announced their interest to equip the Romanian army.

Representatives of General Dynamics, Bell Helicopter and The Boeing Company met yesterday with Romanian economy minister Mihai Tudose, according to a press release from the institution.

Tudose said that they have identified “opportunities to develop concrete joint projects in the defense industry and attract investment that can create new jobs.”

Only one of these projects has been made public so far. Romania could acquire AH-1 Z attack helicopters, produced by Bell Helicopters. The U.S. firm and Romanian helicopter producer IAR, which is owned by the Economy Ministry, signed a memorandum for this in May 2016.

However, the partnership was criticized by the French firm Airbus Helicopters, which recently opened a plant in Romania and also hopes to get a contract for equipping Romania’s defense forces.

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editor@romania-insider.com