The Romanian President, Traian Băsescu,received today, 1st of April at the Cotroceni Palace NATO General Secretary, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. At the end of the meeting the Romanian Chief of State and NATO General Secretary gave a press-statement in which they presented the conclusions of their discussions.
We would like to present the complete text of the press-statement:
“Jaap de Hoop Scheffer: I would like to offer my warm thanks for the fact that Romania is hosting this summit and I would also like to thank to the Romanian people and to everyone who made this summit possible, who made Bucharest be prepared today to host this summit. In the same time I would like to apologize to the citizens of Bucharest for the fact that this event, the biggest summit in the history of NATO is creating difficulties to the traffic in Bucharest.
In the same time I would like to mention, actually to ask the following question: Who could have imagined half of generation ago that a NATO summit would take place in Bucharest? Without entering into too many details I would like to say that this summit has a very interesting agenda, we will concentrate ourselves upon the Alliance’s operations, among which it is possible the operation in Kosovo and we will also discuss the expansion and the challenges of this century regarding the anti-missile defense and regarding the energetic security. In other words it is a summit with a full agenda.
I would like to refer also to the very important meeting which will take place in the afternoon of 3rd April, which will concentrate upon Afghanistan and which will gladly be attended by the President Hamid Karzai, by the ONU General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, by Barroso and Solana and also by the representatives of the World Bank. This summit with such a large representation proves that Afghanistan matters for the international community and that Afghanistan also represents an international effort. There will be also attending all the ISAF contributors among which I would like to mention Australia, New Zeeland, Japan, which will underline the importance of this operation.
I would like also to refer to the Euro-Atlantic Council partnership and to the NATO-Ukraine Council and at last but not the least to the NATO-Russia Council which will gladly be attended also by the President Putin. It is the first time when the presidents of these two countries will meet.
The NATO expansion means that we can offer other countries the opportunity to share with us a sovereign state, the same values and therefore I would like to thank once again to President Băsescu for being an exceptional host for this summit.
Traian Băsescu: Mr. General Secretary, I would like to begin by thanking you and to the other NATO Chiefs of States for entrusting the organization of this summit to Bucharest, to Romania, to the 22 millions Romanians.
The organization of this summit is an honor for us and in the same time it is the moment of assertion. It is for certain that Romania had in the last few months and will continue to have the opportunity during this summit to be a dialogue partner and a capable country to offer solutions to its partners, solutions that should be adopted as the summit solutions.
Mr. General Secretary, it is for certain that this summit will remain in history through its dimensions. It is the biggest summit ever organized by the Northern-Atlantic Alliance. But for us this comes on the second place. Our biggest satisfaction at the end of this summit would be that in the summit conclusions the states from Western Balkans, from East to Romania would find its aspirations through which they would at some point become members of the Northern-Atlantic Alliance. Our satisfaction would also be bigger if in the summit conclusion we could recover the solutions for a vision in Afghanistan, for the Western Balkans region in general, if here we could find the solutions for increasing the security of the NATO member states and its partner states.
I would be also glad if at the end of the summit all the participant at this summit, either politicians or journalists will acknowledge the hospitality of the Romanian people. And because it came up, allow me Mr. General Secretary to apologize with my highest sincerity to the citizens of Bucharest that due to the standard organization conditions of the NATO summit have to endure during these days traffic restrictions. I am convinced that if the result of this summit, and I repeat myself, the result not the dimensions of the summit, in conclusion if the result is a good one, then the citizens of Bucharest will not be upset for the restrictions we have had these days.”
(Source: the Department of Public Communication, Presidency Administration) |
