For the past couple of days, as you know, I was here for a meeting with the U.S.-Romanian Strategic Dialogue. It gave us a chance to talk about the extensive cooperation that the United States and Romania have in so many areas, but particularly security and defense, energy cooperation. We have a very robust commercial relationship. I am proud of the close friendship and alliance we have with Romania, the leadership role Romania is showing economically, in rule of law, in security, in Black Sea energy and security.
I had very productive meetings with the President, with the Foreign Minister, the Vice Prime-Minister and the President of the Chamber of Deputies and those were productive conversations. We had the chance to talk about the full range of things that we are working on in the bilateral relationship. We are very pleased with Romania’s commitment to bearing its share of responsibilities in NATO; it’s an incredibly important task for all members of the Alliance right now in the lead up to the Summit.
We are very pleased with the leadership that Romania is showing in the Three Seas Initiative and looking forward to a successful summit this fall.
So I have had a good chance to have those conversations. I want to say how much I appreciate the hospitality of Vice Prime-Minister Ana Birchall in particular, for hosting this meeting of the Strategic Dialogue, and Hans Klemm, our Ambassador and his team here for the outstanding job that they are doing.
So, thank you for your hospitality. I am always happy to be in Romania and I will be back again soon.
