Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Hryhoriy Pedchenko, and Chief of General Staff of the Romanian Armed Forces, Admiral Gheorghe Marin have held talks in Kyiv on strengthening cooperation in the military sphere, the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has reported.

Pedchenko said that Ukraine's leadership attached great importance to the development of good-neighborly relations with Romania and was seeking to develop them on the basis of mutual respect and constructive dialog.

He said that during a certain period there had been no progress in relations between the defense ministries of both countries. "But we are committed to cooperating and improving the level of trust and security between Ukraine and Romania. Only regular high-level contacts will help quickly resolve problems and outline the areas of our future work," the chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.

He noted that the armed forces of Ukraine and Romania most actively cooperated in the framework of regional projects, in particular, within the Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group (Blackseafor), the Tisza multinational engineering battalion and Operation Black Sea Harmony.

The chiefs of the general staffs of the two countries also discussed issues related to the development of bilateral cooperation in troop training and shared experience in reforming and developing the armed forces amid the global financial crisis.

Among the promising directions of the development of Ukrainian-Romanian military cooperation, Pedchenko and Marin called the possibility of cross-border cooperation at the level of brigades and corps and the holding of joint naval exercises in peacekeeping and counter-terrorism issues.