State Secretary for Defence of Romania visits MoD
The Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Damir Krstičević and the State Secretary for Defence Zdravko Jakop on 16 January 2018 met ith the Romanian State Secretary and chief of the Department for Armaments Florin-Lazăr Vlădică, during his two-day official visit to the Republic of Croatia.
Minister Krstičević recalled the recent visit to Romania and the invitation to the Romanian Defence Minister to visit Croatia.
The two ministers reviewed the bilateral relations to date and the options to enhance the defence co-operation within NATO and the EU.
Minister Krstičević emphasised the Permanent Structured Cooperation, providing a wider perspective for co-operation at the ministerial level and between the research communities and defence industries.
The Minister also underlined the importance of identifying common interests and converting them into concrete projects and praised the good joint co-operation between Croatia and Romania within NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence, whereby the two countries conveyed a message of solidarity, determination and common political will to provide security.
The Minister highlighted the upcoming preparatory activities to take over the presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020 and expressed belief in productive co-operation with Romania and Finland as two countries presiding in 2019. “The activity on joint programme of presidency will enable further development of co-operation and the overlal bilateral relations“, said the Minister.
Secretary Vlădică commended the defence co-operation to date and underlined the EU framework, which through PESCO and the European Defence Fund opens up many opportunities for co-peration of the defence industries of Romania and Croatia.
The Secretary emphasised PESCO military mobility and cyber security projects of interest for both countries. Romania was also interested in projects in medical capabilities and training.
The Romanian State Secretary is visiting Croatia at the invitation of the Croatian State Secretary for Defence Zdravko Jakop and will attend several bilateral meetings, the presentation of Croatian producers of weapons and military equipment and visit HS Produkt d.o.o. in Karlovac.
