Mircea Geoană, the Deputy Secretary General of NATO, rode his bicycle on Sunday on Via Transilvanica, between Ciugud and Alba Iulia, together with the Useriu brothers and other volunteers, thus joining other “ambassadors” of the project that recently won the European Award for Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2023 from the European Commission and Europa Nostra. Geoană also visited the air base at Câmpia Turzii, where NATO troops are stationed.
“I took advantage of being in the heart of Transylvania to do my first Via Transilvanica route. It wasn’t as long as I would have liked, but I think I did a good half hour of the route (from Ciugud to the terminal near the Third Gate of the Citadel in Alba Iulia – no). I was really curious to see this project that already has a reputation far beyond Romania’s borders”, Mircea Geoană told Agerpres.
The presence in Ciugud of the deputy general secretary of NATO took the local administration “a little by surprise”.
“At Ciugud, we are always happy when we are visited by important guests, even when the visit takes us a little by surprise. The Deputy General Secretary of NATO, Mr. Mircea Geoană, is today on a short visit to our community. His Majesty wanted to see the Via Transilvanica and cycled a section of this tourist route. He had a short meeting (at the Via Transilvanica monument in Ciugud) with the initiators of this project, with the mayor Gheorghe Damian and with the president of CJ Alba, Ion Dumitrel, and then continued the route to Alba Iulia. Mircea Geoană thus joins the personalities who promote Via Transilvanica in the country and abroad. (Next time we promise to bring our bikes too)”, says a post published on Sunday on the Facebook page of the Ciugud town hall.
Via Transilvanica is the first long-distance hiking route in Romania and stretches for 1,400 kilometers, from Putna to Drobeta-Turnu Severin.
The official launch of the route took place last fall in Alba Iulia. Also here, was the symbolic launch of the project in the Centenary Year of the Union, in June 2018.
Among the ambassadors and supporters of the Via Transilvanica project were Marcel Iureş, Marius Manole, Pavel Bartoş, Horia Tecău, William Blacker, Mihaela Miroiu, Charlie Ottley, Nicolae Al României, Alina Maria de Roumanie, Toma Coconea, Ada Milea, etc.
Geoana also visited the Turzii Air Base
Also on Sunday, Geoană also visited the 71st “General Emanoil Ionescu” Air Base at Câmpia Turzii, where he found a degree of “flawless” interoperability between the Romanian military and the allied military present here.
“When I visit allied countries, and even more so our country, Romania, I visit military units, those that are in a form of collaboration with NATO, such as Câmpia Turzii. There, in addition to the Romanian soldiers, there are also American and British soldiers, professional pilots who do their duty to our Alliance. Last year when I visited Cluj, I went to Bistriţa, where there is a mechanized brigade that is attached to NATO forces and I saw the same professionalism, the same accelerated modernization of our military capabilities and a degree of interoperability between the Romanian military and allied, American, British military in this case, flawless”, said Mircea Geoană.
Publisher : BP
