Iohannis: We are and will be next to our NATO allies

The collective allied defence means today more than ever the awareness of the fact that each and every country's security could be more efficiently secured together instead of separately, says president Klaus Iohannis in a message he sent on the 'NATO Day in Romania' celebration, according to Agerpres.

2017-04-03 10:28:46

"The moment marks our country′s membership to the most powerful political and military alliance in history and to a community of values and principles, of which the respect towards democracy and the rule of law stand out," said Iohannis. "Therefore, for almost one decade the Romanian citizens enjoy the strongest security and defence guarantees in the history of our modern national history. To Romania, the NATO has become part of our identity as a nation and at the same time the path to put into practice our national security interests. The Alliance has offered democratic Romania a chance to validate for good its democratic, pro-Western vocation."

Iohannis asserts that the Strategic Partnership with the United States of America, the NATO and EU membership are the basics of our foreign policy, and the construction of strong Romania in Europe and in the world is tightly linked to them.

The president recalls that at the July 2016 NATO Summit in Warsaw, the decision was made to strengthen the collective defence on the Eastern Flank of the Alliance, while at the Brussels reunion this May the evolutions will be assessed. Romania, adds the head of state, will continue to strengthen its credible strategic profile within the NATO and emphasises that the 2 percent allocation to Defence from the Gross Domestic Product, "by far the highest budgetary growth ever since joining the NATO," is a guarantee that our country is determined to go by its commitments.