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The development of NATO-EU cooperation in fields such as cyber defence, hybrid war, strategic communication and military mobility will be a priority direction of action for the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) in the next six months, a period during which Romania is holding the rotating presidency at the Council of the European Union, Minister of Defence Gabriel Les told AGERPRES.
According to him, during its mandate, Romania intends to highlight the benefits of the transatlantic relation and the importance of cooperation between the two organisations, starting from the consideration that "European defence cannot evolve outside a solid and functional transatlantic relation."
Moreover, Gabriel Les stated that the priorities of the MApN during the first semester of 2019 also include the continuation of the associated initiatives, especially with an accent on permanent structured cooperation, the annual coordinated revision process and the European defence fund.
"Romania taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union implies a huge responsibility for the MApN too. Both for me, as a Minister, and for the institution I represent within the Romanian Government, and I would like to assure you that I will make all the efforts to ensure that this presidency will be a success. All our actions will support the mandate of the high representative of the Union for foreign affairs and security policy, in the sense of the general political orientations and priorities defined by the European Council, and so as to implement the decisions of the Council of EU with respect to the security policy and common defence field," specified Les.
Moreover, he maintained that the Committee's approaches in supporting the European defence component will represent another key topic on the agenda of the Romanian presidency in the defence field.
The Romanian official says that, while holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, Romania will focus its efforts to increase the efficiency of the operational commitments of the EU.
While referring to the reunion of the political managers in the ministries of defence of the EU members state, which will take place on January 17 and 18 in Bucharest, the Minister of Defence shows that it represents "an informal discussions framework on topical issues on the security and defence agenda of the European Union."
