Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Radu Miruta said the SAFE Programme would be discussed both at his meeting with German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and in talks between Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as part of the visit to Berlin scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
"The scheduled discussions are with government entities. There will be talks between the Prime Minister and the German Chancellor, as well as a bilateral meeting between myself and Defence Minister Pistorius. Naturally, we will also address such topics, because, as I mentioned at the beginning of my statement, this SAFE mechanism involves certain joint procurements for which Germany acts as the lead purchasing country," Radu Miruta said on Monday at a press conference at Victoria Palace of Government.
He explained that the Romanian side will address discussions on the SAFE Programme not only with Germany, but with all countries with which joint procurement will be carried out.
"Joint procurement means a lower price obtained through a larger order, but it also means trying to localise part of the production in Romania, even if we are not purchasing alone. Obviously, if our share of the order is the small one rather than the large one, the entire order cannot be localised in Romania, but parts and subcomponents are under discussion, and we are interested in having them produced in Romania. This can only be achieved through dialogue," Miruta said.
The minister added that among the Ministry of National Defence projects included under the SAFE Programme, two involving joint procurement with other states are to be carried out with Germany: "Three air defence systems that will complement the Patriot system - joint procurement with Germany; and two air defence command and control centralisation systems - joint procurement with Germany." A
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