Landmark conference explores building better UK/Romania defence industry partnerships

Around 100 senior leaders from the defence, diplomatic and professional communities came together in Bucharest, Wednesday 18 March, for a groundbreaking conference on building better UK/Romania defence industry partnerships. Developing on themes from the UK/Romania Business report, Building better defence industry partnerships: opportunities in the new geopolitics, the event was hosted and supported by KPMG Romania.

Featuring a keynote address by Dr Rebecca Shah, Chargé d’affaires, British Embassy Bucharest, its three panels offered expert and incisive comment on new security challenges in the region, and how the Romanian defence industry can seize the moment to build new capability and capacity enabled by the UK/Romania strategic partnership.

Its opening panel understanding Romanian defence production and procurement, examined the state of the national defence industrial base and blockages to its modernisation in a spirited debate between Cristina Dragomirescu, Vice President, ARCTIS; Air Flotilla General Adrian Duță (ret.), Senior Advisor – Defence and Security, KPMG Romania; Alina Inayeh, Lead Advisor, Aspen Institute Romania; Marinel Moscaliuc, Executive Director, StarC4Sys and Andreea Zvac, Partner, Wolf Theiss.

Turning next to the defence innovation opportunity in Romania, its five featured speakers, Radu Blideran, Defence Programme Manager, INCAS; Horia-Răzvan Botiș, Board Member, NATO DIANA; Bogdan Iordache, General Partner, Underline Ventures; Kalin Stoyanov, Head of Business Development, Destinus and Dr David Webster, Founder, UK/Romania Business, made the case for how defence can become the next big tech success story in Romania.

A final panel UK/Romania defence co-operation and strategic partnership, leaned into the knowledge of Tudor Grecu, Partner and Head of Defence Sector CEE, KPMG Romania; Gen Daniel Petrescu (ret.), Chief of the Romanian Defence Staff, 2019-2023; Dr David Webster, Founder, UK/Romania Business, and Jerry Weston, Space Export Sales Director, Airbus Defence and Space UK, to lay out practical steps to establishing a greater footprint for British defence companies in Romania.

Reflecting on the success of the event, Dr David Webster, Founder of UK/Romania Business remarked “British companies have often overlooked the potential of the Romanian market. Their heads may now be turned by the abundance of new money, but if they’ve failed to build good local relations they may still struggle to gain traction here. We’re trying to change that, and this is what our conference has been about.” Dr Webster continued “In conversations with defence communities in both countries we’ve also often heard that Romania must bring industry directly and at early stage into discussions on procurement and equipment needs, and that the central role of ROMARM, and lack of delivery on defence industrial strategy, is holding the country back. UK expertise can help reform this and UK investment can support the development of new defence and defencetech strength right here in Romania.”

"Building better defence industry partnerships: opportunities in the new geopolitics", the new report from UK/Romania Business

Building better defence industry partnerships: opportunities in the new geopolitics, the new report from UK/Romania Business, was launched last night, 25 November, at the Palace of Westminster.

Exploring the geopolitical relevance of Romania – and commercial opportunities that flow from this – the comprehensive analysis examines what increased defence spending means, how a greater European interest in sovereign defence capability shapes this, and where the UK and Romania can build together for the changing nature of warfare and weapons systems.

Featuring original interviews with a wide range of defence industry experts from both Romania and the UK, the foreword to the report was written by General (ret.) Daniel Petrescu, former Chief of the Romanian Defence Staff. It concludes by offering three recommendations around:

• better defence industry dialogue and procurement process reform

• radical transformation of industry ownership

• the need to build a defencetech and dual-use innovation economy in Romania.

Hosted by Bob Blackman CBE MP, discussion at the launch was led by report author, Dr David Webster, and featured Nick Bolan, UK Future Milsatcom Solution Lead, Airbus Defence and Space; Air Flotilla General (ret.) Adrian Duță, Senior Advisor – Defence and Security, KPMG Romania; Nicoleta Gradinaru, Founder and Director of International Partnerships, MGNG UK; and George Bara, Founder and Head of Strategy, Zetta Critical, who together explored these key themes and conclusions.

Launching the report, Dr David Webster, founder of UK/Romania Business said, “British companies have often overlooked the potential of the Romanian market. Their heads may now be turned by the abundance of new defence money, but if they've failed to build good local relationships this pot of cash might still be beyond them.” Commenting on the need for radical defence industry reform in Romania, Dr Webster continued “the temptation for the Romanian government will be to allocate SAFE funds to ROMARM companies hoping this can serve as the investment they sorely need. This is short-term and flawed thinking. Post-Ukraine conflict there'll be a point at which Romania will switch from being a critical conduit on the eastern flank of NATO, to a country on the fringe of the region's true source of defence innovation and manufacturing excellence. It's industry needs to reinvent itself now or Romanian companies will be bulldozed.”

Publication of Building better defence industry partnerships: opportunities in the new geopolitics was supported by Wolf Theiss Romania, Europe’s leading CEE/SEE focussed law firm. It was further assisted by Activize, How to Web, KPMG Romania and Underline Ventures.

Download the report now here www.uk-romania.business/resources

Global Tech Connect welcomes its largest cohort yet for Dual-Use 25

32 startups from 11 countries start their UK scaling journey this week as the Global Tech Connect Dual-Use Bootcamp begins its online sessions, 4 November.

Amongst the selection are five with Ukrainian roots – Falcons, Himera, Huless, Kara Dag Technologies and Swarmer – and two others, Fox Four and Newt21, actively testing in the war and helping to defeat Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion.

10 companies will then join the in-person delegation to London, 24-25 November, for workshops, business development meetings and investor introductions before featuring in a startup showcase, 25 November.