Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Monday welcomed President of the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO Paolo Alli at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, amidst the NATO PA annual session going on in Bucharest.
According to a Presidential Administration press statement, the two officials exchanged views on security developments in the Euro-Atlantic area, preparations for the NATO summit to be held in 2018, including the relevance of NATO-EU cooperation amidst strengthening the European Union’s role in the field of security and defence.
“President Klaus Iohannis welcomed the fact that the annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly was taking place for the third time in Bucharest, expressing appreciation for the role of this forum in promoting the values and principles on which NATO is founded, and also congratulated the NATO PA leadership for the outcome of the session, a substantial agenda that has an important role to play in preparing for the NATO Summit next year.”
The Romanian head of the state also highlighted the role of the national parliaments in supporting the NATO objectives, as well as the member states’ honouring their commitments, including the allocation of adequate defence resources.
President Iohannis reviewed the areas in which the alliance needs to further strengthen: from further strengthening the eastern flank and ensuring a strong allied presence, to ensuring greater coherence between the north and the south flanks, to a greater involvement of NATO in the fight against terrorism, including contributions in Afghanistan and Iraq, to ensuring complementariness between developments at NATO level and those at EU level, and to strengthening cooperation between the two organisations.
In his turn, Paolo Alli thanked Romania for its contribution to NATO and President Iohannis for the speech to the NATO AP session, which clearly showed Romania’s vision of NATO’s future.
“Paolo Alli has praised Romania for its substantive contribution to global security and agreed on the need for a robust ally response to the threats stemming from the Eastern Neighborhood, while also underlining the importance of building synergies at allied level to achieve NATO goals, including through better use of resources,” the press release said.
The two senior officials also discussed the importance of supporting the Western Balkan states joining NATO and the EU, with Iohannis reiterating Romania’s support to this end.
“The two interlocutors expressed their appreciation for the consolidated strategic partnership between Romania and Italy, which is at a very good level, both politically and economically, and to which the Romanian community in Italy contributes consistently,” according to the Presidential Administration
