French, Dutch ministers visit NATO battlegroup in Romania

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The foreign ministers of France and the Netherlands have paid an official visit to a military base in Romania where both nations station troops as a part of a NATO battlegroup that was bolstered in the wake of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Catherine Colonna of France and Wopke Hoekstra of the Netherlands visited the military base in Cincu, central Romania, along with their Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu. Hoekstra told troops from the multinational battlegroup stationed there that they play a key role in “keeping this continent and our territory safe.” The ministers will later hold trilateral talks in Bucharest, Romania’s capital.