On July 3 Vice Minister of National Defence Giedrimas Jeglinskas discussed prospects of bilateral and multilateral military cooperation between Lithuania and Romania at a meeting with the Ambassador of Romania to Lithuania, Dan Adrian Balanescu.
“The same approach to threats shapes a similar approach to NATO, European Union and strategic directions of shaping national defence. That allows us to strengthen military cooperation in various bilateral and regional formats, including the Three Seas Initiate and the Bucharest 9,” Vice Minister G. Jeglinskas said at the meeting.
Defence cooperation of Lithuania and Romania
The defence cooperation of Lithuania and Romania intensified in 1998 when both countries’ Ministries of Defence signed an agreement on bilateral cooperation. The agreement was last updated in 2010. At the moment both countries take part in collective NATO, EU and regional initiates and projects, such as Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects: development of EU cyber response teams or military mobility. Cooperation in training C-27J Spartan crews is also expanded.
Lithuanian and Romanian military personnel are training in joint exercises, the countries cooperate in military training, expert-level meetings are held. In 2007 Romania deployed an air force detachment with four MiG-21 LanceR fighter aircraft to conduct the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic states from the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Šiauliai.
Romania is celebrating its 15th anniversary of NATO accession in 2004 on March 29 together with Lithuania and five more European countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia).
Photo credits: Alfredas Pliadis (MoD)
