Romania supports an increased role of NATO in the Middle East region and in combating terrorism, stated, on Friday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu in Brussels, before the extraordinary meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, called by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The agenda of the meeting features the situation in Iran and Iraq.
"It's a very important meeting, because it gives the European Union the opportunity to involve itself in resolving this crisis. I would have preferred that this meeting take place earlier this week, because the faster we act the more efficient we are. But it's important to have the meeting, because in the past ten days we have had worrying developments in the region," added Aurescu.
The head of the Romanian diplomacy stated that the speech on Wednesday of the US President, Donald Trump, on the topic shows that "a de-escalation is possible".
Aurescu also spoke of the recent appeal of the Iraqi Parliament for foreign troops to retreat from the country's territory.
"We don't believe that this would contribute to the stabilization of the region. The troops are there to offer training to Iraqi forces, so that they would be more resilient against the terrorist threat," stated the minister.
He recalled that the meeting will also be attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as "NATO and EU actions should take place in complementarity and synergy."
In this context, the Romanian minister said that "it's extremely important that in both NATO, as in the EU the members of both organizations show unity and act in a spirit of solidarity."