Meetings of Romanian Chief of Defense, Gen. Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă in the US

Romanian chief of Defense, General Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă, has had a meeting with General Richard D. Clarke, Commander of the US Special Operations Command at USSOCOM headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

The two officials have discussed topics related to continuing the process of transforming and modernizing forces for special operations, coordinating and increasing interoperability within missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and cooperation on developing capabilities specific to the comprehensive action mode of special forces.

They also addressed topics regarding participation in joint training activities of Romanian and American militaries, adaptation of the education and training process of the FOS operators to the climate and the international security context, as well as security in the Black Sea region and security challenges NATO is facing in theaters of operations where Romanian and American troops operate together, Romanian Ministry of National Defense (MApN) states in a press release.

USSOCOM plans Special Operations and leads the US Special Operations Forces, acting as part of or in support of US forces to sustain US operations and actions worldwide. USSOCOM has backed the transformation process of the Romanian special operations forces, by advising and assisting during the process of setting up the Special Forces Command (CFOS) in Romania.

General Nicolae Ciucă also met at the Tampa MacDill Air Base with General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., Commander of US Central Command (USCENTCOM).

Discussions covered topics related to security situation in the extended Black Sea region, missions of the Romanian military in Afghanistan, and cooperation of the Romanian Armed Forces with the US Armed Forces, in bilateral, ally and multinational format, within the Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

Program of the visit of Romanian Chief of Defense in the United States also includes a series of meetings in Washington with Heads of central structures of the US Army.

General Niacolae Ciucă is due to meet also with the Commander of the US Marine Corps (USMC).

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei