Romanian President Klaus Iohannis met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday, January 16, during his visit to Brussels. In a joint press conference, Stoltenberg thanked the Romanian President for Romania’s substantial contributions to NATO and welcomed the recent decision to spend 2% of Gross Domestic Product on defence by 2017, saying this was an “important example”.

“Romania is a strong NATO ally,” said Jens Stoltenberg, cited in a NATO statement, adding that the Romanian troops had made remarkable contributions over many years to the NATO-led combat mission in Afghanistan and continue to do so. He also said that Romania plays an important part in other key areas, such as building stability in Kosovo and NATO’s missile defence system.

In return, the Romanian President said that his visit “confirms Romania’s firm commitment to the North Atlantic partners.” “I assured Mr. Secretary General today of our full support for the Alliance’s efforts and repeated the invitation to visit Romania, we’ll both agree on a good moment for this,” said Iohannis, cited in a statement of the Romanian Presidency.

They’ve also talked about the Deveselu military base in Romania, which will become operational this year. “I stress, once again, the defensive nature of this base and the fact that it represents an important contribution of Romania in the partnership with the U.S., to reinforce NATO capabilities,” added the Romanian President.

Klaus Iohannis also met with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker during his visit to Brussels.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: presidency.ro)