BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S MEETING WITH
PRESIDENT KLAUS IOHANNIS OF ROMANIA
Via Telephone
2:01 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Let me start by saying thanks to all those who have joined. We’ll go right to the ground rules. This is provided on background. Attribution is to a "senior administration official.” And this call -- there is an embargo on the contents of this call until the end of the call, so please adhere to that.
Okay, so without further ado, I’m going to go and hand off to our first briefer.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is [senior administration official]; I'm the [redacted] to talk to you a little bit about, on background, this visit that we have planned with President Iohannis of Romania and President Trump tomorrow.
We’re excited to have the Romanians here. We’re going to be recognizing our great and longstanding partnership, and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the end of communism in that country, and also the 15th anniversary of their NATO membership -- both very important anniversaries. We’ll be also discussing tomorrow, at the meeting, issues surrounding defense and energy, and law enforcement cooperation, in particular.
With that, I would like to turn it over to my other colleague here and let him introduce himself.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon everyone. I just want to say that this meeting is taking place in context of a series of meetings with the heads of state and government in Central Europe. President Trump has, this year, covered almost every country in that region, and he wants to show the importance of Central Europe to the United States, both as allies and security partners, and as business and commercial partners for the future.
This is an area that’s very exciting; there’s a lot going on there. Economies are growing. Trade between these countries and the U.S. is increasing all the time. Romania is a particularly important ally, occupying a key geostrategic position in Central Europe. It’s a crossroads for the region and a dynamic country, which we have excellent relations of friendship, commerce, and security.
So, with that, I think that covers our opening statements.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. At this point, ma’am, I’ll hand it over to you now to moderate questions, and we’re ready to receive.
Q Yes, this is Tejinder Singh from IAT. I have a question that, if there a decision for -- you know, a deadline for a decision to accept Romania in the Visa Waiver Program, as a country in the European Union, and there is a -- you know, the general population will benefit by what they call a “fair treatment” of this issue, if you can highlight anything or update on this.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Romania is a candidate for the Visa Waiver Program. The requirements for entry into the program are statutory and depend on Romania meeting certain legal qualifications. When they meet those qualifications, then they will be invited to join. So while we expect that the issue will be discussed, the question is not for the President, but it is when Romania meets the requirements of the VWP.
Q Hi, this is Andrew Feinberg with Breakfast Media. Thank you for doing this call. A few years ago, President Iohannis criticized Hungary and other countries that have gotten away from democracy. He said, "What is happening in Hungary now, that is not democracy going in the right direction." Will President Trump be discussing the retreat from democracy in countries like Poland and Hungary with President Iohannis?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We expect that the conversation between the Presidents will focus on bilateral issues and some on regional security. We don’t expect that they will be discussing the internal doings in third parties.
Q Hi, this is Maren from the German press agency, DPA. Thanks for doing this call. You mentioned that this meeting, and others, underscores the relationship or the commitment from the U.S. to Central Europe. And the President is going to Poland and Denmark in a couple of days. One country he hasn’t visited is Germany, and I was wondering if you can give a reason for that. Does this represent a shift in the alliance?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Today we're discussing the meeting of the President with the President of Romania. I can say with regard to Germany that President Trump has frequent contacts with Chancellor Merkel, and this should not be read into any meaning for the U.S.-German relationship.
Q Sorry. This is Dmitry Kirsanov from TASS. Thanks a lot for doing the call. I wanted to ask if you expect any deliverables from the talks between the two Presidents. Point one.
And, point two, could you give us any more details about defense cooperation aspect of the talks -- Aegis Ashore and things of that nature? Should we expect any news out of that? Thanks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I'm not going to preempt the President by discussing what the deliverables are. You're going to have to stay tuned after the meeting to see what comes out of it. Defense cooperation is, of course, a normal subject for these sorts of discussions. Romania is a member of NATO, and the defense issues are very important with all NATO members.
Q Hi, this is Mona Austin of the Slice Report. Recently, I've encountered several Romanian immigrants who came into the U.S. through Mexico. I found that curious. They explained that they actually sold their properties, and came from Romania to, I believe, Brazil, and then up through the caravan. I spoke to three separate families, on three separate occasions, that this happened to.
Will the President address any sort of proper or improper immigration? I understand the context of why we're having this call, but will he be talking about, sort of, what it seems like to me is an influx of Romanian immigrants entering the country in perhaps an improper way?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t expect that there is going to be any discussion on these topics.
Q Can you hear me?
OPERATOR: Yes, caller, we can hear you. Please go ahead.
Q Yes, this is another question that has popped up, and it’s about the dependence of Romania on the Russian gas. Is there anything that the U.S. is helping Romania to reduce that, with that Exxon having -- abandoning the drilling from Black Sea coast? And the rumor is that the U.S. will send more troops to Romania in NATO’s context. So these two, if you have any updates.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sir, this is [senior administration official] from NSC Press. Could you please state your name again?
Sorry, your line is muted. Please state your name and --
Q Yeah. That the foreign investors are annoyed by the one-month order of (inaudible) that was brought out. And, you know, that Exxon is continuing investment in the gas sector, in the Black Sea area. But in the process, the Romanian dependence on Russian gas is getting higher and higher. So is there any steps that the U.S. is taking to convince Romania so that it can reduce its dependence on Russian gas?
And other one is about: Is the U.S. planning to send more troops, in the NATO context, to Romania?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It’s a priority for the President to promote energy independence for all of the countries that he talks to, and such discussions are a normal part of his interaction with leaders from the European region.
And in answer to the second question, we don’t discuss plans for U.S. troop deployments. I would refer you to the Pentagon for that.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay, thank you very much. We appreciate everyone’s participation today, to include our two briefers. Thank you very much.
Again, I just want to go again on the rules. This was provided on background. Attribution is to a “senior administration official.” And now that it’s the end of the call, the embargo is lifted.
Is there any questions or comments?
Thank you very much. Appreciate the help.
END 2:14 P.M. EDT
|
No comments:
Post a Comment