This year Romania will have the honor to host the NATO Summit, which will take place in its capital city of Bucharest, during 2 – 4 April. The event will occur in a temporal and geographical context full of symbolic connotations. Romania is one of NATO’s newest members, a country that also marks the Alliance’s eastern border. In this respect, we believe Bucharest is the befitting place to mark the enlargement of NATO family and to reconfirm our support for the Alliance’s military and political transformation.
I am pleased to welcome to Bucharest the representatives of all Allied member states, of our regional and global partners for security, as well as high representatives from major international institutions, academic circles and journalists, participating in the different reunions and events on the margins of the Summit. I particularly welcome those who attend a NATO Summit for the first time. Their presence is proof of the progress we have made in adapting this Alliance to the 21st century.
Enlargement has been a success and a visionary endeavor. NATO members have enhanced their security by extending it to other states that share common values. We hope to open a new door to the Alliance for our Balkan candidates but a final push is needed on both our part, as NATO members, and on the part of those who will become our allies. In the same spirit we must respond to the desires and requests of NATO’s partners who wish to strengthen and develop their relationship with the Alliance, for the benefit of euro – atlantic security and stability.
While continuing to play a critical role in European security, NATO has also engaged in fostering stability outside of Europe. To those still questioning our renewed agenda, we can only point out that the purpose of the Trans-Atlantic collective defense cannot be served in isolation. That is why we have made in Afghanistan NATO’s largest human and financial investment in its post-cold war history. We look forward to joining our voice in reconfirming the Alliance’s solid commitment in Afghanistan and in refreshing our strategy of success together with our mission partners.
Taking into account the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, we strongly believe that the allied states should continue to work seriously on developing a NATO missile defense system, based on fundamental principles of indivisibility of trans-atlantic security, collective defense and solidarity. The Summit would be a proper venue to move forward on this issue. We also hope Bucharest will take the decisions from Riga one-step further and define NATO’s added value in energy security and cyber security.
I am confident that during the Bucharest NATO Summit we will be able to achieve a substantial progress in making this organization stronger and more effective in defending our collective security and projecting stability beyond our Euro-Atlantic realm.
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