Loading ...Romania's President Traian Basescu is attending today, the second day of the NATO anniversary summit meeting, a working session of the North-Atlantic Council, to be staged in Strasbourg.
The event will be preceded by a ceremony honouring the NATO troops for their contributions to the operation theatres of NATO, and opening remarks by Germany's Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Early in the day, the official delegations of the participating countries, which spent Friday in Germany, crossed the Footbridge of Two Banks of Kehl into France. The officials were accompanied by Angela Merkel, and half way on the bridge they were welcomed by Nicolas Sarkozy.
The Romanian delegation, composed of President Traian Basescu, Defence Minister Mihai Stanisoara and Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu arrived on Friday in Baden Baden, and it was later on welcomed at the Kurhaus Palace by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. On Friday evening, a work dinner of the heads of state or government was extended, chaired by the NATO secretary general.
On Friday, before leaving for the anniversary session of NATO in Germany and France, President Basescu said Romania believes the North Atlantic Alliance should preserve its political neutrality toward Kosovo and added that he will insist at the NATO summit that Serbia receives a message encouraging its accession to Euro-Atlantic structures.
He pointed out that Romania also believes NATO should keep its commitments to Ukraine and Georgia they pledged at the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit, and that the Alliance should also encourage Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina as far as their Euro-Atlantic aspirations are concerned.
At the same time, the Romanian head of state underscored that Romania would like the anniversary NATO summit meeting of Strasbourg and Kehl to keep mentioning the Black Sea zone as an area of interest and a strategic security element within the NATO security policies, upholding this way the message conveyed at the 2008 NATO summit meeting.
He added that Black Sea security is not possible without a commitment from the Russian Federation. The NATO summit meeting of Kehl and Strasbourg marks the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed on April 4, 1949 in Washington.
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