Trump to discuss security and energy independence during meeting with President Klaus Iohannis tomorrow.
President Trump will meet with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis tomorrow. The meeting will focus on ensuring regional security and represents an attempt by the American administration to shore up its relationships in eastern and central Europe.
2019 is the 30th anniversary of the end of communism in Romania, and the 15th year of its NATO membership. The meeting will commemorate both of these events, a senior administration official said.
President Trump has met with most leaders of the central European and eastern European countries over the course of the past year and this meeting is the latest in that series. In focus will be bilateral issues concerning both countries focusing on defense, energy issues and law enforcement cooperation.
Besides the NATO anniversary, defense is a focus of this meeting because of Romania’s political and geographic location. Romania represents—located between eastern and central Europe—a crossroads. It is consequently a “key geostrategic position in central Europe,” according to the senior administration official.
With respect to energy, President Trump will encourage Romania to become energy independent. For Romania this means moving away from a dependence on Russian gas, which, after Exxon reduced drilling in the Black Sea, is the only energy option available to the country. This dependence on Russian is a challenge to US interests in the area—and another incentive to focus this meeting on energy.
President Trump last met with President Iohannis in 2017.