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"In the lead-up to the incoming NATO summit in Warsaw, I have requested and obtained the US support as well as a promise for support to strengthen Black Sea navy cooperation," Romania's Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said Tuesday after meeting US Vice-President Joe Biden at the White House.
"I have explained Romania's demarches so far in cooperation with Bulgaria and Turkey and I got a promise for support at the summit for the Black Sea cooperation to be sustained by NATO," added Ciolos.
He said at the meeting he also made a request for support for a multinational brigade on Romania's soil, again in partnership with the NATO member states, a brigade that Romania has pledged to endow, all this as part of the deterrence and defence system on the entire eastern flank of Europe, not just in the north-eastern part, but also in the south-eastern part."
The Biden-Ciolos meeting was hosted in the West Wing of the White House, located close to the Oval Office, and it lasted about one hour and ten minutes, instead of half an hour as officially scheduled.
Accompanying Ciolos were Romania's ambassador to the United States George Cristian Maior, Energy Minister Victor Grigorescu, Agriculture Minister Achim Irimescu, Prime Minister's Chancellery head Dragos Tudorache, Foreign Policy Advisor Calin Ungur and Government Spokesman Dan Suciu.
Biden came at the meeting with U.S. ambassador to Romania Hans Klemm, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, his National Security Advisor Colin Kahl, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy James Townsend. The American delegation also included two special assistants to U.S. President Barack Obama.
