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Trade, technology and inter-human relations between the UK and Romania are additional guarantees for a peaceful coexistence, British Ambassador to Romania Andrew Noble said in the beginning of a conference called "The defence and security of Europe and the Black Sea region - the UK, Romania and BREXIT."
He brought to mind the terrible war that took place 100 years ago and the new nations arising after it. In this part of Europe, as he pointed out, the people who spoke Romania reunited for the first time in the modern history, after being under the rule of three different empires. Romania also gained its spot in the family of nations. After one hundred years, security and defence of peoples and our nations remained one of the cardinal duties of our governments, the British official said. Fortunately, these governments, he said, have more and better instruments at their disposal than their predecessors in 1914, in order to be able to prevent conflicts. In Europe and on the other side of the Atlantic, the multilateral inter-dependence of the international institutions, including, but without limitation to the UN, NATO, OPCW and OSCE, means an approach where all disputes can be solved if there is political will and wish to find peace. Andrew Noble said that our trade, technology and inter-human relations are additional guarantees of our peaceful coexistence.
The British Ambassador pointed out that threats to peace and security continue in the present.
He also talked about the recent events at the Kerch Strait, which in their turn remind us that threats to peace and security are far from being left in the past. The entry into Romania's and UK's air space in 2018 also showed that we cannot be happy with just maintaining our status quo of peace. For there are hybrid threats, sometimes with shocking consequences as in Salisbury of the UK, sometimes in damages caused by the online attacks. This is the context, showed the British official, in which the UK and Romania updated their commitment in the defence and security fields. This is the context for the conference in which the British Ambassador took part, between the British and Romanian specialists in four key-fields of defence and mutual security. In their capacity as members of the NATO club, Romania and UK are showing together what it means to bring an European contribution to the real military and security capability of NATO, pointed out Noble.
In the end of his speech, the British Ambassador in Bucharest told the participants in the conference to have as active discussions as possible.
He also said he is sure that the discussions at the conference, which enjoyed an active participation of an well-informed and influential audience will help ensuring peace and security on the European continent - we don't have another continent, so we need to defend the values, territories and peoples of this one. He wished everybody a day with challenging discussions and he wished all Romanians a celebration of the centennial full of joy.
In the opening of the conference also delivering a speech was Minister of Defence Gabriel Les.
