Romania's goals are included in results of NATO summit in Riga, says President Basescu

Riga, Nov 29 / Rompres / - Romania's foreign policy goals are included in the results of Riga summit, which came to an end on Wednesday with a declaration favouring the need of troop reinforcement in Afghanistan and the support for the Alliance's enlargement strategy. The summit was aimed at finding solutions for the success in allied operations theatres and for the adaptation of the Alliance to today's realities, Romania 's President Traian Basescu explained at the end of meeting.

Romania fulfilled its pledges assumed in Afghanistan and already sent extra troops, thus answering the summit's appeal to all allied members to assume responsibility for the success of the operations in this country, as a proof of NATO's credibility, said the Romanian President.

Transforming NATO was the other key issue of the meeting in Riga and the participants made decisions in line with Romania 's goals, namely the extension of the Partnerships for Peace by inviting Serbia , Montenegro and Serbia-Herzegovina to join.

Traian Basescu described the decision as extremely important as it strengthens the security in the Western Balkans. Albania , Croatia and Macedonia are expected to receive firm invitations in the next summit in 2008, a position already expressed by Romania .

Referring to the NATO-Ukraine strategic partnership, the Romanian President believes that the population needs to be better informed of the security advantages NATO can bring in the region.

The Black Sea cooperation, a topic intensely favoured by Romania over the past years, was tackled during the meeting, with the attendants requiring the observation of the treaty on conventional forces in Europe , especially by the Republic of Moldova and Georgia .

Traian Basescu told the news conference that the allied forced agreed to a global partnership including strategic partners already involved in NATO missions, such as South Korea , Japan , Australia and New Zeeland.