Ministrul afacerilor externe Bogdan Aurescu participă astăzi, luni, 18 iulie 2022, la reuniunea miniștrilor afacerilor externe ai statelor membre ale Uniunii Europene – Consiliul Afaceri Externe (CAE), care se desfășoară la Bruxelles.
Transmitem mai jos transcrierea declarației doorstep susținute de către ministrul afacerilor externe înaintea începerii reuniunii oficiale.
Declarația în format video, în limba engleză, este disponibilă AICI.
Good morning!
Today, we will have another important discussion on the effects of the war of Russia against Ukraine, together with the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Mr. Kuleba. It is the first discussion of this kind at the level of the Foreign Ministers after the historic decision of the [European] Council at the end of June to grant candidate status to Ukraine, so it is very important.
We will discuss today – and we think it is very important – how we can help Ukraine to do reforms under the current conditions of war. Because, as you know, the Opinion of the Commission of the 17th of June, which proposed the granting of candidate status, also established a number of benchmarks, so Ukraine has to do reforms. Under the current conditions, this is a challenge.
At the same time, today I will present to my colleagues the efforts which were undertaken by the Romanian Government and the Romanian authorities in order to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian grain through Romania. According to the figures that we have, by now, around 2.7 million tons of grain from Ukraine have already transited Romania.
I will also express today the support for the new tranche for the European Peace facility and also full support for the new package of sanctions against Russia.
Sometimes I hear voices, in Romania or elsewhere, which are propagating, willingly or unwillingly, the narratives of the Russian propaganda by asking „Why are you helping Ukraine and the Ukrainian citizens?”; „Why don’t you help Romania rather than Ukraine?”. And my answer to these voices is loud and clear: if Ukraine fails, then the security of Romania, the security of the Romanian citizens and the Euro-Atlantic security are threatened. So it is in the strategic interest of Romania and of all the European member states to fully support Ukraine in order to prevail in this war, which was unleashed by Russia against our neighbor.
At the same time, we also need to support other countries in the region, for instance the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and we also have to take a very close look at what happens in the South Caucasus and even in Central Asia.
Speaking about the Republic of Moldova, I will present today the very good outcome of the Conference of the Moldova Support Platform, which I have hosted on Friday, in Bucharest, together with the Foreign Minister of Germany and the Minister [of State] for Development, Francophonie and Partnerships of France. We had very good results. On one hand, we have managed to get pledges of around 615 million Euro, out of which 432 million Euro in grants for Moldova. And, on the other hand, we have consolidated the role of this Platform as an instrument to support reforms in the Republic of Moldova, because the Republic of Moldova has also been granted candidate status and has to do reforms in accordance with the steps or benchmarks which were included in the Opinion of the Commission of the 17th of June.
Then, of course, we will discuss about very important aspects related to digital diplomacy and the relationship between the EU and Latin-America and the Caribbean, which are very important.
So, I am looking forward to the very substantial discussions of today.
Thank you!
