President Nicusor Dan on Tuesday said that economy has an increasingly important weight in international affairs, and Romania must stick to its international commitments, but at the same time pursue its national interest.
„Issues that seemed stable once and for all are being questioned. Obviously, the economy is starting to have an increasing weight in international affairs – we are talking about tariffs, we are talking about protectionism, we are talking about an intertwining between security and the economy. Given the circumstances, we must be realistic. We must, on the one hand, keep our international commitments and we have three main pillars – the United States, the European Union and NATO – and, on the other hand, we must, in this changing context, see to the national interest,” Dan told Radio Romania Actualitati public broadcaster on Tuesday .
He added that Romania is protected in terms of security under its partnerships and alliances, but it must, like the entire European Union, invest more in its defence industry.
„If we talk strictly about security, we have a strategic partnership with the United States and Romania is a NATO member country. Within NATO there is a rearrangement that was announced way back under the first term of President Trump, a rearrangement in terms of the economic contribution to ensure this security. Europe has understood the message. (…) So we have a resetting from the perspective of contribution, of security commitments. On the other hand, NATO as a whole functions and provides sufficient security guarantees for Romania. So, in short, we are protected, but for this we have to make some efforts to equip the military. The European Union became aware of its slight military weakness and started several programmes, including the SAFE Program, for which Romania has also signed up. That will mean that, in the coming years, (…) in Romania and throughout Europe we will have an increase in defence spending, but that will also give important development prospects for the defence economy,” said Dan. AGERPRES
