Bucharest's Economy Minister Bogdan Ivan told the Romanian parliament today that Romania will have its own drones by the end of this year and will modernize its production lines for RDX and TNT explosives, IPN reports.

"What we will have for sure by the end of the year is that we will have our own drones, we will have RDX and TNT, we are working on modernizing the production lines on these two important components. We will have, in about two and a half years, our own powders, in a joint venture with a large company outside Romania," the Romanian minister said, as quoted by Agerpres.

"Right now, my colleagues at the technical level are working with the Defense Ministry on this analysis, the needs of the Romanian Army, in order to see very concretely what we can produce and deliver tomorrow, on the one hand, and on the other hand, where we can make investments, for example, in Făgăraș, the TNT or RDX production line, such as the Victoria powder factory, for which we have already won the land expropriation processes and have already entered," Bogdan Ivan added.

At the same time, the Minister of Economy referred to the way in which Romania can enter the €150 billion SAFE mechanism for arming the European Union.

"Romania already has an extremely interesting profile in advanced technology, in cyber security, in AI, in drones, because this segment represents two of the six essential points of the EU SAFE mechanism. We have already had working meetings with the Minister of Defense, with the Minister of Finance, all our specialists are already working, and at the end of this week we will have a meeting to establish what we are doing, within what timeframe and with what sources of financing," the Romanian official said.