Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius met for consultations on Monday in Paris. They made a review of the bilateral relations and of the cooperation of the two countries inside the European Union. Within the context of the consolidation of the Schengen Area, Bogdan Aurescu presented Romania’s relevant arguments as a security provider in this free movement area.
A release of the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) received by Agerpres points out that the ‘very open and cordial’ meeting was an occasion to reassert both parties’ satisfaction about the bilateral Strategic Partnership relation, a dynamic and substantial one, based on cultural, historical and language affinities, and also about the current level and pace of political contacts.
‘The two high officials discussed the acceleration of the political meetings. The French minister gladly accepted his Romanian counterpart’s invitation to visit Bucharest this year, within the context of the anniversary of 135 years of diplomatic relations between Romania and France,’ MAE’s document mentions.
According to this source, the talks produced an agreement with the Romanian party’s proposal of a joint evaluation of the point of the bilateral Strategic Partnership Roadmap.
‘The parties evoked with satisfaction the weight of the economic side of the bilateral relation, as France is Romania’s third partner in terms of trade, with an annual volume of commercial exchanges of nearly seven billion euros in 2014 and with investments amounting to approximately seven billion euros. Concrete ways of further developing this evolution were reviewed, including the diversification of the fields and of the concrete economic projects,’ MAE pointed out.
Moreover, the two officials discussed the current evolutions within the EU and thus observed the ‘convergence of visions and positions on many shared interest files.’
The release adds that minister Aurescu voiced Romanian authorities’ hope of continuation of the commitment of Chisinau authorities for securing the European path of the Republic of Moldova, based on its programme that includes the political association and economic integration with the European Union as a priority objective.
‘Upon the proposal of his Romanian counterpart, the French minister agreed to issue a joint invitation of the EU member states’ foreign ministers to organize another meeting of the Informal Support Group for the Republic of Moldova’s European Action in March, as this format initiated by Romania and France proved very useful to stimulate the support of member states for the pro-European reform efforts in Chisinau and to reassert the Republic of Moldova’s commitment in this field, especially in the implementation of the Association and Free Trade Agreement,’ the aforementioned document reads.
As regards the fight against terrorism, Bucharest’s top diplomat reaffirmed Romania’s firm support to the enhancement of the cooperation in this field on a European and international level.
During his visit to Paris, the Romanian Foreign Minister also met the general commissioner for investments Louis Schweitzer. MAE informed they discussed possible future projects of bilateral cooperation to stimulate the growth of the administrative capacity of the Romanian institutions in general, and concerning the drawing of European funds in particular.
