DefMin Fifor and French Minister of Armed Forces discuss NATO's eastern flank, Council of EU presidency

Minister of National Defence Mihai Fifor, on Monday, met with the French Minister of Armed Forces, Florence Parly, with whom he discussed about the harmonization of standpoints regarding the eastern flank security on the occasion of the upcoming NATO Summit in Brussels, in July, and about the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union. 

"The meeting that I had last evening with Mrs. Florence Parly, the Minister of the Armed Forces of France, represented an excellent occasion for us to have more consistent discussions related to the cooperation agenda between Romania and France. In the context of the preparations for this July's NATO Summit in Brussels, we agreed on the harmonization of standpoints related to security on the eastern flank of the Alliance, and Mrs. Parly assured me that France will treat the Black Sea region as a matter of importance. Thus, France will continue this year with the visit programme of the French ships in the Black Sea, in which context Mrs. Minister assured me of France's support in ensuring an advanced presence, coherently adapted, in the region," Fifor wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. 

He told the French official about the priorities of the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union. 

"Considering that, in January 2019, Romania will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, I discussed with Mrs. Parly about our country's priorities and the challenges facing the Union, both at internal and external level, at this point. I told her that very important for us will continue to be the project Europe of Defence, the launch of real cooperation projects in the defence field within PESCO, as well as the transatlantic relation for NATO and the EU," showed the Minister of Defence. 

Mihai Fifor underscored that "in a Europe where challenges and threats are increasingly more diverse and complex, there is need of consistence, of an accelerated path and visible results in the cooperation between the European states." 

The two officials also tackled such topics as the possibility of bilateral cooperation including in the technical-military field and they agreed on continuing discussions on different levels, with a view to developing European defence industries.