Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis have adopted in Warsaw on Thursday a joint declaration to boost the bilateral Strategic Partnership.
The President of Romania is on an official visit to Poland from Wednesday to Friday. He met his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski on Thursday at the presidential palace, in an official ceremony attended by the representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Poland and by several children. On Friday, the Romanian president will meet Polish Prime minister, Ewa Kopacz.
“We discussed the security situation in the eastern neighborhood and the role and responsibilities Romania and Poland have in the region. On this basis, together with President Komorowski, we agreed that our Strategic Partnership requires reassessment and reconsolidation. We just adopted a joint declaration to this effect, as a continuation and enhancement of the one regarding the Strategic Partnership between Romania and Poland, signed in Bucharest in 2009. This new declaration points out that the relations between our countries are now at an all-time high, but also that we want to take them even further, especially as regards the strategic component,” said President Iohannis after the official talks held with his Polish counterpart.
He thanked the Polish President for the talks, openness and the extremely good conclusions.
“I am very happy to be here in Poland, in response to the invitation Mr. President Komorowski extended to me. He addressed this invitation on the first day after my election as President of Romania, and it produced me great joy. We have since prepared this visit, and here we are, having effectively met. This visit I pay at the beginning of my term emphasizes, and I want it to emphasize, the importance myself, all of us, attach to the relationship between Romania and Poland. This relationship is based on the Strategic Partnership of substance we have in place and which we want to deepen,” said Iohannis.
He termed talks with his Polish counterpart as cordial and weighty.
“I reaffirmed the top importance the bilateral relation with Poland has for Romania,” said President Iohannis.
He stressed that the declaration adopted together with President Komorowski is aimed “not just at strengthening Romania – Poland bilateral relations at security level, but also at the correlated development of the strategic partnerships we have with the U.S. and at maintaining political solidarity within NATO.”
The head of state mentioned that during the talks, the parties approached subjects of common interest to this region of Europe currently faced with “major challenges”, adding that an important part of the discussions with Polish President Komorowski was devoted to developments in the Eastern neighborhood.
“I reiterated Romania’s firm support for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. We condemned in the strongest terms the serious deterioration of the security situation in south-eastern Ukraine, expressing at the same time hope for a progressive implementation of the package of measures agreed upon in Minsk, on February 12. I reaffirmed Romania’s full readiness to contribute, together with Poland and other partners from the EU, to the advance of reform processes in Ukraine,” Iohannis said.
The head of the state stressed that for Romania, supporting the European course of the Republic of Moldova remains a top priority.
“We are determined to provide as substantial as possible support in this respect. We both agreed that a strong message of support should be conveyed for the pro-European course of all the Eastern Partnership member countries,” concluded Iohannis.
Komorowski: I count on Romania’s cooperation in strengthening the Eastern flank of NATO
The Polish President, Bronislaw Komorowski, on Thursday stated with respect to the strengthening of the Eastern flank of NATO that he counted on Romania’s cooperation as well.
“The next NATO Summit to be held in Warsaw in 2016 will demand more from us than just conducting a common assessment of how much we achieved from the decisions that were taken in Newport (…) In my opinion, we shouldn’t regard the Summit in Warsaw as yet another occasion to draw the conclusions from what we managed to achieve since Newport, but we should also see it as an opportunity to strengthen even more the eastern flank and to try to make decisions to consolidate a sense of security in the region. I won’t hide from you the fact that I count on Romania’s cooperation in this respect and I also count on Romania to participate in the building of a common stand and common ideas in relation to the eastern flank of the Alliance,” President Komorowski said during the joint conference he had with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis.
He showed that he discussed with President Iohannis about the situation in the region, especially about the situation in Ukraine and Moldova.
“We spoke about the various development opportunities that we have in terms of our cooperation in making preparations for what might happen in Ukraine. What is important is to say that we share the same convictions that the West must be prepared for a negative development of the situation. And with this I mean the possibility of the Minsk Treaty not to be respected,” explained the Polish President.
Polish-Ukrainian-Romanian Summit to be hosted by Poland soon
In this context, he also showed that the Polish authorities also intend to arrange a meeting with the Romanian and Ukrainian Presidents.
“Based on the very good experience that I had after my common visit with President Poroshenko in Moldova, which resulted in this country gaining more importance lately, we decided to try to arrange another meeting in Poland with three heads of state – that is with the Romanian, Ukrainian and Polish heads of state – where to discuss about the situation in the region, and I would also like it to look at this as a wish to strengthen the Romanian-Polish cooperation in matters that have to do with the security of our region,” said Komorowksi.
He appreciated the Romanian President’s visit to Warsaw as “a chance” for strengthening cooperation between Poland and Romania.
“I believe that this is a huge chance for us to reshape the already existing Strategic Partnership between Romania and Poland. I am certain that this partnership is very necessary considering the development of the situation in our region, in this part of Europe, where some bad changes intervened in terms of security,” said Komorowski.
He also said he was glad to sign with President Iohannis a joint declaration on enhancing cooperation between Romania and Poland in various fields of activity.
The political calendar, according to Komorowski, is urging both Romania and Poland to strengthen cooperation.
Bucharest to host regional meeting this autumn to prepare the NATO Summit in Warsaw in 2016
The two presidents also announced an agreement on holding a regional meeting of the heads of state this autumn in Bucharest, to prepare the NATO Summit in Warsaw in 2016.
“‘We agreed with President Komorowski on organizing this autumn in Bucharest a new edition of the heads-of-state-level meeting in Bucharest, in the format used last July in Warsaw – a regional format we appreciate is important, a format that enhances the regional collaboration and is a very useful instrument to prepare the NATO Summit in Warsaw in 2016,’ Iohannis said in his joint media statement with the President of Poland.
He mentioned that the date of the proposed meeting has to be agreed with the other heads of state.
The meeting ‘will definitely contribute to improving the cohesion in the region and to the harmonization of our points of view in preparation of the NATO summit,’ President Iohannis asserted.
Romania wants to draw increased number of Polish investments
President Klaus Iohannis said on that Romania wishes to draw a larger number of Polish investments, and a greater presence of the Romanian companies on the Polish market, as well.
He said he has also approached in his discussion with the Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski the economic collaboration.
“I have expressed Romania’s wish to entirely diversify the sectoral collaboration and to draw an increased number of Polish investments to Romania, and a stronger presence of the Romanian companies on the Polish market, too,” the head of state said.
He said that in the European cooperation plan he has agreed with his Polish counterpart a all-level coordination in the files with priority interest for Romania and Poland, in the context in which the two countries’ positions towards the topics on the European agenda are clearly convergent.
“We have also talked in this context about the investment Plan for Europe that it is forwarded by the European Commission and supported by the EC and the ways to enforce it. I have highlighted that for Romania is important to ensure a balanced distribution in the entire Union of the investment projects to be implemented within this plan. This means including the taking into account of the specific of the member states and their investments needs,” Iohannis added.
On Thursday too, president Klaus Iohannis laid a wreath and signed in the Book of Honour at the Unknown Soldier’s Memorial. He participated afterwards in a working lunch given in his honour by the Marshal of the Polish Sejm, Radoslaw Sikorski and met the Marshal of the Senate of Poland, Bogdan Borusewicz. In the afternoon, the Romanian head of state met the members of the Romanian community living in Poland, Agerpres special correspondent Florentina Peia reported from Warsaw.
