AGERPRES special correspondent Oana Ghita reports: Romania is honoured to host one of the regional offices of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank - DSRB, President Nicusor Dan declared on Tuesday, as he announced that - on the sidelines of the Ankara NATO Summit - Romania has joined the allies who signed the Declaration of Joint Intent to establish the DSRB, a Canada-led initiative.

'The new multilateral financial institution will help strengthen member states' capacity to finance investments in defence and security by expanding access to capital, reducing financing costs and supporting the development of industrial capabilities, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. As a founding member, Romania reaffirms its commitment to contribute to the development of this new cooperation instrument and is honoured to host one of the Bank's regional offices,' Nicusor Dan wrote on Facebook.

The leaders of Canada, Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Türkiye and Ukraine announced their intention to create the DSRB.

'At a time when Allies are increasing defence investment, expanding industrial capacity and accelerating production of critical capabilities, we recognise the need to mobilise public and private capital at scale to support our defence, security and resilience priorities,' they state in the Declaration, affirming their joint commitment to work together on establishing the DSRB, and noting that the Bank will broaden access to capital, reduce financing costs and support industrial-capacity expansion in member states.

'We emphasize that the DSRB is intended to complement, not duplicate, other national and multilateral instruments that seek to increase defence production. We commit to providing the leadership required to advance the creation of the DSRB with the urgency demanded by the current geopolitical context, to enable the Bank to commence operations as early as 2027,' the signatories of the Declaration add. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Antonia Nita; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)

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