Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă met with the French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly

PRESS RELEASE

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă's meeting with the French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă had today discussions with the French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly. Security on the Eastern flank, French - Romanian security and defence cooperation, development of NATO and EU's new strategic approaches, respectively developments in Mali and Sahel region have been analyzed on this occasion.

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă voiced appreciation over the French president's decision to increase French military presence in Romania, showing that this French enhanced contribution to the NATO's deterrence and defence posture on the Eastern flank, and in the Black Sea region, confers even more substance to Romania -France Bilateral Strategic Partnership. The Romanian Prime Minister highlighted the importance of NATO and UE's unity in upholding principles underpinning the current European architecture of security, whereas the deterrence of the violation of the principles of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states is necessary in this regard.

In this context, Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă has condemned the Russian Federation's pressures and threats against Ukraine, and he emphasized the importance of supporting enhanced resilience and special attention extended to cooperation with Eastern partners.

The French Minister for the Armed Forces addressed the issues of technical-military cooperation and the prospects of Romania's corvette program. Mrs Florence Parly mentioned the French expert mission arrived to assess the fulfilment of the French President's option to reinforce the Eastern flank with troops, which could take place as soon as NATO's decision is made in this respect. Starting January 1, France is leading NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) - NATO's spearhead force.

Regarding the situation in Mali, Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă recalled that Romania is ready to participate in the Takuba Task Force, the multinational task force for combating terrorism in the border region between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The deployment of Romanian military personnel will be coordinated with France and other European partners participating in the Task Force as soon as local authorizations have been obtained.