Coats, Romanian Foreign Minister Meet to Discuss Ukraine Crisis

Press Release

Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and former U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, and Titus Corlatean, Romania's Minister of Foreign Affairs, met this week to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and the consequences of Russia's recent territorial aggression.

The two agreed that Russia's annexation of Crimea was illegal, unacceptable and that any further Russian efforts to militarily occupy or annex portions of Ukrainian territory or other border countries must be vigorously opposed by the international community.

"In light of the rapidly changing strategic environment in Europe, Romania has become one of the most important NATO allies," said Coats. "Romania is a highly valued U.S. partner in maintaining European security and an indispensable part of a comprehensive, coherent response to Russian aggression."

Senator Coats and Minister Corlatean agreed that the most important response to Russian misbehavior must be a rapid and strong revitalization of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance. The minister has called for further forward deployments of NATO assets to include greater permanent and rotational presence of U.S. forces in Romania and in the Black Sea region, consistent with the bilateral agreements between the United States and Romania.

Senator Coats agreed that a thicker web of NATO activity and presence in the Black Sea region and elsewhere in Russia's border areas is essential. The senator emphasized that NATO must, at the same time, address the Alliance's critical resource problem by renewing allied commitments to increase defense spending, especially now that European security has been directly threatened.

Senator Coats suggested that Romania should strongly press its European Union partners to reach a consensus on vigorous, meaningful sanctions on Russia to discourage further aggression. Coats continues work within the Senate on additional U.S. sanctions.

The senator added that Romania is critical to NATO's response to the Ukraine crisis because it borders both Ukraine and Moldova, is home to U.S. Marine Corps' Black Sea Rotational Force, hosts U.S. forces near Constanta and is a vital basing component of U.S. and NATO missile defense systems.

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