Thank you so much Your Excellency, Minister of state, for your very kind words.
Dear ministers,
Mr. Vice-Prime minister,
Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I warmly welcome, on my turn, all members of the Emirati and Romanian delegations. I would like convey my deep appreciation for their presence here, in order to organize such a great event for our bilateral relations. The appreciation of the Romanian Government also goes for the hospitality and tremendous efforts of our hosts, who managed to impeccably organize this session.
This second session of our Joint Committee of Cooperation takes place in the context of the visit, yesterday, of the Prime Minister of Romania, His Excellency Mr. Nicolae Ciucă, who had very fruitful meetings and discussions with His Highness, President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and other high level Emirati officials. And, yesterday, also, there were very successful working-level sessions, which are facilitating the success of our meeting today.
Currently, as Your Excellency mentioned, both of our countries are facing their share of security concerns and a lot of challenges, stemming from regional developments and from their global impact. And I am referring here especially to the situation in Ukraine, which was prompted by the Russian aggression. Under these circumstances, it is all the more commendable that we are able to meet today here, in order to talk about how to further enhance our sectoral cooperation, our economic development, as all these are essential instruments, not only for our economic prosperity, but also for promoting and building peace and security in our regions and in our countries and citizens.
As we can see, a relevant number of Romanian ministers and state secretaries are in our session. Mr. Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Sorin Grindeanu, former Prime Minister of Romania, our colleagues the Minister of Energy, the Minister of Agriculture, and myself are very glad to be here today, in person.
I am convinced that this second edition of our Joint Committee of Cooperation will significantly contribute to enhancing our already traditional ties, but also to improve our cooperation in new areas – and we have already discussed about some of them.
And, no doubt, this meeting will also improve our governmental coordination, which will certainly represent a positive signal for both the Romanian and Emirati investors, and be of use for our business communities.
Our Joint Committee today is an expression of our long-lasting commitment to this strong, future-oriented, mutually beneficial partnership.
The United Arab Emirates is among Romania’s top economic partners in the Gulf, but also one of our most trusted partners in the entire region.
During today’s meeting, we will discuss ways and means of increasing and developing our cooperation in essential areas like: joint investments, energy, agriculture, transport, environment, IT&C, new technologies, airspace and we will discuss about UAV research.
In addition, for obvious reasons – and this, again, is in the light of the events in Ukraine – the development of our exchanges in the energy sector remains a subject of paramount importance for both our countries and our regions.
During our talks today, we will also touch upon many other subjects of national, regional and some of global relevance.
Let me thank again all the Emirati authorities and my colleagues from the other line ministries and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who coordinated the preparation process for this Meeting, for the considerable efforts undertaken to make this meeting a success, with concrete deliverables and with a lot of pragmatic results.
Our countries share a strong commitment to promoting and fostering stability, prosperity and worldwide peace. In dealing with the challenges posed by current international developments, we are working as friends and as partners, and, you can see here today, we are engaging in a very constructive and hopefully dynamic dialogue.
In this spirit, our countries are active and responsible members of the European Union, in our case, and of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in the your case – two organizations that have recently committed to take their partnership to a new level of ambition, which is also due to the efforts of our countries.
Today, we have already discussed before this session about the multidimensional effects of the crisis in our direct neighbourhood and also about the effects of our multidimensional responses.
I have already presented the huge effort of the humaniatian assistance that Romania has provided to more than 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees who crossed our borders, and I have also mentioned the international hub for distribution of humanitarian assistance created in Romania. And there is an opportunity for the United Arab Emirates to use this hub for providing assistance to Ukraine.
My country is also very much involved, as we have already discussed before this meeting, in solving the food security crisis generated by the Russian aggression in Ukraine, because our position is one of the most favourable from a geographic point of view in that respect, and we are trying to act as efficiently as possible as a hub for the transit and export of Ukrainian grains.
So, Romania is now on the frontline of the international efforts aimed at preventing a global food crisis that could potentially bring about very severe consequences, including for the Middle East region.
We have also called for a wider international effort, a coalition of the willing, to mobilize the support of as many countries as possible to create a corridor, including with a maritime component, involving our port, Constanța, which is the largest port at the Black Sea, in order to transport Ukrainian products, especially grain, to third countries.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Port of Constanța has ensured the transit of more than 1 million tons of grains for Ukraine to various destinations.
Of course, there are some other effects. Energy is also impacted by the war and the Gulf region can play a fundamental role in managing the current crisis and stabilizing the oil markets. So, we are very interested in continuing the discussions in that area, and I believe our Minister of Energy is very open and available to continuing a very pragmatic discussion in that regard.
Today, we also have important documents, which will be signed. Beyond the fact that we will sign the Minute of this session, we will also sign the Agreement between the Government of Romania and the Government of the United Arab Emirates on defense cooperation; and the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Transportation and The Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation of Dubai.
Let me end by thanking you again for the effort and for your kind attention.
Let me express, once again, my confidence that will have a very successful session of the Joint Commission today.
Thank you!
