Romania, U.S. to face future challenges together, as partners and allies (joint statement)

Romania and the United Stats of America will continue to be a bulwark of Euro-Atlantic values and they will meet all the future challenges together, as partners and allies, a joint press statement issued on Monday by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Department of State underscores.

The following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and Romania on the occasion of the 10-year anniversary of the signing of the U.S.-Romania Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century and the Agreement on the Deployment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania:

"Today is the 10th anniversary of two instruments that address the peace and security of the United States, Romania, and our European allies - the U.S.-Romania Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century and the Agreement on the Deployment of the Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania. As a result of our Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement, Romania now hosts the Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense System. In May 2021, we celebrated five years since Aegis Ashore became operational. This anniversary marks an important milestone in our bilateral relationship. We reaffirm and celebrate our friendship and the diplomatic framework that has strengthened bilateral relations, supported democratic development and Euro-Atlantic integration, increased trade, and investment, and helped spread widely the benefits of sustainable prosperity," reads the above-mentioned document.

Moreover, according to the same source, the document reaffirms the cooperation between Romania and the U.S., both at present and in the future.

"Building on the milestone reflected in these joint anniversaries, our two governments recommit to serving as a bulwark for Euro-Atlantic values and to broadening and deepening the economic, cultural, and interpersonal links between our two nations. Today, we reaffirm and celebrate our cooperation and appreciate the fact that we will meet our future challenges together as friends and allies," the joint statement of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US State Department pointed out.

***

Ever since its launch in 1997, the Strategic Partnership concluded between Romania and the U.S. represented an essential milestone in the Romanian foreign policy's history and one of its main pillars, alongside the North-Atlantic Alliance and the European Union memberships, as well as an efficient instrument supporting internal efforts in building security, increasing prosperity, carrying out political, economic, military and administrative reforms, underscored the MAE.

The cooperation between Romania and the U.S. has constantly strengthened and diversified until, in 2011, the two sides decided to further develop their Partnership through establishing the main directions of the bilateral relations, within the Strategic Dialogue process: maintaining political dialogue, broadening the economic relations, interpersonal links, deepening dialogue in various fields such as science and technology, research, education, culture.

In this context, they negotiated the political text of the Joint Declaration, with the chief negotiator for Romania being the incumbent Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu. On September 13, 2011, on the occasion of the Romanian President's, Traian Basescu, visit to Washington, they adopted the Joint Declaration on the Strategic Partnership for the 21st century between Romania and the United States of America, mentions the MAE.

The open cooperation framework described by the Joint Declaration contributed to the development of the strategic, political-military, and security dimensions of the Strategic Partnership, representing its current foundation, on all its dimensions, as the first political bilateral document evoking the Strategic Partnership. At the same time, it contributes to the strengthening of the political dialogue and it brought the economic and energy security dimensions to a level of performance close to the one reached in the strategic and military fields.

MAE brings to mind that the negotiations regarding an Agreement to have a ballistic missile defense system (BMDA) belonging to the U.S. located in Romania started in 2010. After eight rounds of discussions between the negotiation teams, led by Bogdan Aurescu (Secretary of State with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs back then) for Romania, and Ellen Tauscher (at that time Under Secretary of State for Arms Control of the United States), respectively, for the U.S., the Agreement was sealed on June 6, 2011, and signed on September 13, 2011, in Washington. The Agreement came into force on December 23, 2011, as the first legal document mentioning the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the U.S.).

On December 18, 2015, they declared the technical capacity of the Anti-missile Facility in Deveselu, with the inauguration ceremony (declaring the full operation capacity) of the Aegis Ashore Facility within the Deveselu Military Base, part of NATO's system of defence against the ballistic missiles (NATO BMD) taking place on May 12, 2016.

The Agreement proves the United States' commitment to European security and represents a joint contribution of Romania and the United States to the collective defence, within NATO. The anti-missile defence system is exclusively defensive and targets threats from outside the Euro-Atlantic space.