The visit of the SRI Director to the United States - Official meetings with heads of American intelligence services

13 April 2018

The Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Mr. Eduard Hellvig, had various official meetings with representatives of the American intelligence community.

At the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters, the SRI Director met with the management of the organization, as well as with high officials from the agency's main areas of action. Given the current security challenges and the regional context, the meeting focused on the cooperation between the two partner services on matters related to the prevention and countering of risks and threats to national security.

Cooperation activities are aimed at all areas of current interest for the security of the two countries, focusing on the prevention and countering of cyber attacks, terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and hybrid threats. During the meeting, the American officials expressed their gratitude for the way in which the Service and the Romanian intelligence community as a whole dealt with such threats.

The representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation reiterated the importance of the strategic partnership between the Romanian and the American intelligence services. The FBI officials acknowledged the cooperation between FBI and SRI in the field of information exchange, antiterrorism and of the fight against cross border organized crime. The FBI representatives pointed out that the partnership with the Service has a longstanding tradition that should be continued, especially with regard to highly complex cyber crime cases.

The SRI Director also had bilateral meetings with high officials from Homeland Security (DHS), the American security organization with the broadest range of responsibilities in the US. During the meetings, the participants agreed that in the near future SRI and DHS should jointly capitalize on their individual experiences, especially as regards the sensitive issue of the security threats that the two countries are confronted with. The SRI Director also mentioned the significant progress that Romania and Romanian institutions have made over the past years and called once again for the elimination of visa requirements for Romanian citizens.

The United States tour continued with an official visit to the State Department, where the discussions between Mr. Eduard Hellvig and the American officials centered on the current global situation, the strategic partnership between Romania and the United States and the threats and risks to global security.

The SRI Director's visit to the United States ended with a meeting with the members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). During the discussions, the officials shared a number of institutional experiences regarding the services' relation with the public, the extremely important role of Parliaments in maintaining intelligence organizations within democratic boundaries and in the exclusive service of the citizens, but also in terms of providing the legislative mechanisms and budgetary resources needed to carry out missions in the current security context.

The official visit of the SRI Director, Mr. Eduard Hellvig, to the United States is the expression of the close relationship between the Romanian Intelligence Service and American security agencies; all the officials have stated their conviction that this relation could contribute to the strengthening of Romanian-American cooperation within the framework of the Strategic Partnership.