Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Oana Toiu, who is on a visit to the United States of America, took part in the ceremonies marking the presence of the Mircea tall training ship in the U.S., as well as in the events marking 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Toiu also met with Romanian Harvard students.

The visit also included hosting, at the Atlantic Council, a roundtable meeting dedicated to the next steps after the Ankara NATO Summit and to Romania - U.S. cooperation in the economic and security fields.

The top diplomat held meetings with members of the U.S. Congress, including Steve Daines, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe (Senate Foreign Relations Committee); Mike Rogers and Pat Harrington - Chairman and member, respectively, of the House Armed Services Committee; Joe Wilson, Co-chair of the House of Representatives' Helsinki Commission; Gregory Meeks, Representative of New York; and Kevin Self, Representative of Texas. Discussions focused on the NATO Summit, the presence of U.S. troops on Romanian soil, and enhancing investments and economic partnerships, as well as cooperation between Romanian and U.S. companies, the Foreign Ministry said in a release.

Romania will host for the first time this autumn the Romania - United States Exchange Program for a delegation of U.S. congressional staffers and representatives of American think-tanks, following the conclusion in spring of the agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of State.

On Thursday, Oana Toiu is attending the Ministerial Conference on the resurgence of political terrorism, at the invitation of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where she is to present episodes from Romania's history in which political violence was used as an instrument by totalitarian regimes.

'The painful experience of political killings and imprisonments leads us today to support an agenda aimed at prevention before violence takes root, regardless of the ideology that propagates violence as a political instrument,' the Foreign Ministry states.

The Romanian top diplomat will also include the EU perspective based on Protect EU: Agenda for preventing and combating terrorism, and the need to focus on countering the radicalisation of young people online. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)