MApN: Chief of Defence Staff meets his Spanish counterpart

he Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, met on Wednesday at the Ministry of Defence headquarters with his Spanish counterpart, Admiral Teodoro Esteban Lopez Calderon, who is on an official visit to Romania. The discussions focused on military cooperation relations, participation in exercises and missions and on the consolidation of allied and European multinational structures.

According to a press release of the Ministry of National Defence (MApN), the two officials said that, in the context of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and Spain, "cooperation between the two armies is at an excellent level, being relevant both bilaterally, through consistent participation in training activities and supporting the defensive capabilities, as well as in an allied context, through the commitment of the Romanian and Spanish military for the application of security measures in the eastern flank of NATO."

In the future, Petrescu and Lopez Calderon have decided to intensify joint training activities in the fields of air defence, military police, ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance), education and special operations and cyber defence.

Another topic on the agenda was the operationalization of NATO command-control structures. Lieutenant-General Daniel Petrescu reiterated Romania's position to remain engaged, along with other allied states, in consolidating the "NATO Rapid Deployable Corps" in Valencia and, together with other sponsoring nations, in supporting the Center of Excellence "Counter Impovised Explosive Devices" in Madrid.

"I conveyed to my Spanish counterpart that Romania, in the process of developing defensive capabilities, promotes, in both formats, NATO and the EU, a realistic approach, which aims at the efficient coordination of national forces and means, given that for each of the the two international bodies, the member states have a single set of capabilities," Petrescu was quoted as saying in the release.

"In the year in which Romania and Spain mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations, the contribution of the Spanish army to strengthen, in our country, the position of the Alliance of deterrence and defence is given by the participation of the Spanish military in NATO multinational structures deployed in our country and in the air police missions, together with the Romanian Air Force," concluded the officials present at the meeting.

The Chief of the Defence Staff of the Kingdom of Spain also had meetings with the command teams of the General Staff of the Land Forces, the Command of the South-East Multinational Corps and the Multinational Command of the South-East Division.

On Thursday, Admiral Lopez Calderon will be received by the Minister of National Defence, Nicolae Ciuca, will have meetings with the Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force and the General Staff of the Naval Forces and will participate in the closing ceremony of the Strengthened Air Force mission of the Spanish detachment deployed to 57th "Mihail Kogalniceanu" Air Base.

On the last day of the visit to Romania, on Friday, the Spanish officer will be the guest of the "Mircea cel Batran" Naval Academy in Constanta and will meet with the seamen from the Spanish frigate participating in the SEA SHIELD 21 exercise of the Romanian Naval Forces.