NATO Secretary General with the President of Romania 🇷🇴 Nicușor Dan, 05 NOV 2025

Joint press conference by the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, 5 November 2025. 🗣 | NATO Secretary General: President Dan, dear Nicuşor, it’s a pleasure to be here, with you, in Bucharest. And we had already, indeed, very fruitful discussions on my first visit in this capacity to Romania. For more than 20 years now, Romania has been a steadfast and valued Ally. You host the French-led NATO Forward Land Forces – strengthening our deterrence and defence posture on our Eastern Flank. Next week, as part of the Dacian [Fall] Exercise, NATO will exercise scaling the presence from a battalion to a brigade. Romania provides important leadership in the context of the Black Sea region – you already mentioned it – which is, can I stress this, of strategic importance to the whole of the Alliance. NATO also highly values Romania’s, Bulgaria’s and Türkiye’s efforts in this Black Sea region to expand demining and patrols. You contribute to NATO missions in Kosovo and Iraq, contributing to peace and stability beyond your borders. And you are a strong supporter of Ukraine as they defend against Russian aggression and pursue peace. Romania understands the importance of investing in defence, and you lead by example. You already spend more than 2 percent of your GDP on defence, with plans to increase to 3.5 percent by 2030. And an additional 1.5 percent of GDP is earmarked for defence-and security-related investment. In all these ways, it is clear that Romania is invested in NATO – and, let me be clear, NATO is invested in Romania. In recent months you’ve seen Russian drone incursions into your airspace. NATO’s response has been swift and decisive. Regardless of intent, NATO takes these incidents extremely seriously. And we will remain vigilant. Deterrence is the bedrock of our defence, and so, we are making crystal clear that NATO is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to defend. This includes, indeed, activities like Eastern Sentry, that add strength and flexibility to our posture along the entire Eastern flank – including the Black Sea region. This means more capabilities that can be brought to bear whenever and wherever needed. There should be no doubt of NATO’s resolve to protect the Alliance on land, at sea, and in the air. And we are working together with industry to secure the technology, artillery and ammunition we need to continue to defend every inch of Allied territory. And here, too, Romania is playing an important role. Thank you again, because today and tomorrow, I will attend, thanks to your hospitality, the NATO Industry Forum here in Bucharest – an event that really illustrates the best of NATO. Bringing together civilian and military, Allies and partners, government officials and industry leaders, from big firms to the small start-ups. And we will be meeting with one shared goal: to help bridge the gap between what we have and what we need. NATO and the defence industry are working hand-in-hand to accelerate innovation, procurement and production. We are working together to scale up production while driving down cost, to speed up innovation and adaptation, and stay ahead of the curve. Because our adversaries will continue to test us, we cannot be found wanting. We have vital work to do together. President Dan, dear Nicuşor, thank you, once again, for your warm welcome and your leadership. Again, thanks so much. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ SUBSCRIBE to this channel https://bit.ly/NATOsubscribe SUBSCRIBE to NATO News https://bit.ly/NATONewsSubscribe SUBSCRIBE to NATO History https://bit.ly/NATOHistorySubscribe Connect with NATO online: Visit the Official NATO Homepage: https://bit.ly/NATOhomepage Receive NATO updates via email: https://bit.ly/NATOemails Find NATO on FACEBOOK: https://bit.ly/NATOfacebook Follow @NATO on X/TWITTER: https://bit.ly/NATOtwitter Follow NATO on Instagram: https://bit.ly/NATOinstagram Find NATO on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/NATOlinkedin Find NATO on Flickr: https://bit.ly/NATOflickr #NATO #OTAN #Romania