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No. 47 / February 09, 2005

During the meeting with the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, the Romanian minister of National Defence, Teodor Atanasiu, mentioned that Romania wants to re-orientated her contribution to the international coalition efforts in Iraq . The efforts mainly will be focused in training and endowment of the Iraqi Armed Forces so that they should be able to take over additional security charges. Also Atanasiu precised that the Romanian industry of defence is producing the materials that could be adequate to the Iraqi endowment requests and our country will have to coordinates her actions with the United States of America .

Rumsfeld stated Romania proved to be a serious partner of the United States and NATO and appreciated that the two states will develop their bilateral relations within the Strategic Partnership and the cooperation within the North Atlantic Alliance.

Atanasiu and Rumsfeld also talked on NATO's transformation and the two countries'participation in countering the terrorism in the theaters of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq .

The two officials meeting, the first after the 2004 elections in Romania and the United States, was developed Wednesday, February 9, 05 during the Informal Meeting of NATO Defence ministers organized in Nice, France.

MoND Press Office