Talks at NATO hearquarters in preparation of December's Foreign Affairs Ministers' meeting

Secretary of State for Bilateral and Strategic Affairs in the Euro-Atlantic Space George Ciamba, on a visit to the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, met with Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Alejandro Alvargonzalez, the two addressing the NATO Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting of December 5-6 and in anticipation of the Alliance's Summit of July 2018, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). 

During the meeting with Rose Gottemoeller, the main topics currently in NATO's focus were reviewed, given the complexity and the unpredictability of the present security environment. 

"In the context, George Ciamba highlighted the need to fully implement the decisions adopted in the Warsaw NATO Summit, in view of ensuring credible and efficient defence and deterrence postures. He emphasised the importance of NATO's unified approach regarding the entire eastern flank and presented Romania's contribution at implementing the advanced allied presence, in compliance with the commitments undertaken," reads the MAE press release sent to AGERPRES. 

In his turn, the Deputy Secretary General of NATO praised Romania's important contributions to NATO, both as regards the implementation of the advanced allied presence in the Black Sea area and in Poland and the participation in allied missions. 

"He also expressed special appraisal for Romania's commitment to allot 2 percent of the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] to defence and especially for the attention directed at investments in modernizing military equipment. Progress recorded in developing the NATO-EU cooperation was also reviewed, Secretary of State George Ciamba underscoring the special importance Romania grants the deepening of the two organisations' partnership in as many common interest domains as possible, on the basis of the complementarity principle," reads the release. 

The dialogue with Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Alejandro Alvargonzalez revolved around the arrangements in view of NATO's Foreign Affairs Ministers' meeting of December 5-6. The two officials exchanged views on the main security developments, regionally and globally, and their implications for NATO, special focus being granted to the evolutions in the eastern vicinity of the Alliance and the Western Balkans. 

The Secretary of State brought up the need for the Alliance to pursue its support of partner states, with a view to strengthening defence capabilities and national resilience and pleaded for the identification of new concrete projects meant to respond to these states' specific needs. The importance of a special focus on NATO's agenda to the expansion policy was also pointed out, the release further informs.