President Klaus Iohannis says the Strategic Partnership with the US has decisively marked Romania’s evolution, pointing out that the partnership will be further deepened to the benefit of Romania.
“The RO-US Strategic Partnership, which has decisively marked our evolution, was being launched 20 years ago. We continue deepening it, to the benefit of Romania!,” Iohannis wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
President Iohannis: Strategic Partnership with U.S. has decisively marked our evolution; we continue deepening it
President Klaus Iohannis says the Strategic Partnership with the U.S. has decisively marked Romania’s evolution, pointing out that the partnership will be further deepened to the benefit of Romania.
“The RO-U.S. Strategic Partnership, which has decisively marked our evolution, was being launched 20 years ago. We continue deepening it, to the benefit of Romania!” Iohannis wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
The strategic partnership between the two states was launched on 11 July 1997, during the visit that U.S. President Bill Clinton paid to Bucharest. President Clinton’s visit was followed by an exchange of letters between U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Severin. Subsequent to this exchange, the U.S. State Department’s Assistant for European and Canadian Affairs Marc Grossman paid a visit to Bucharest in October 1997. The partnership’s fields of interest were established on that occasion. Since its launch, the strategic partnership has represented an essential landmark for Romania’s foreign policy, as well as an efficient instrument of support for domestic efforts in the field of political, economic, military and administrative reform.
MAE: Romania-U.S. strategic partnership, 20 years of strategic, political-military, security and economic cooperation. 20 years of bilateral relations based on friendship and trust!
On Tuesday, the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) saluted the 20th anniversary of the launch (on 11 July 1997) of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States of America, an extended framework of collaboration seeking the consolidation of bilateral relations, the backing of Romania’s process of reform and its overtures to join the Euro Atlantic community, the promotion of Romania’s role as a factor of stability and security in South-East Europe.
“Ever since its launch, the Strategic Partnership with the U.S. has represented an essential landmark for Romanian foreign policy, one of its main pillars alongside North Atlantic Alliance and European Union membership.
“With the adoption, at the highest level, of the Joint Declaration of Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century between Romania and the U.S., signed in Washington D.C., on 13 September 2011, and the signing of the “Agreement between Romania and the United States on the deployment of the U.S. ballistic missile defence system in Romania,” relations between our country and the United States have advanced toward a new level of excellence and profoundness,” reads a MAE communique published on Tuesday.
The document also emphasises that bilateral collaboration has been consolidated both on its strategic, political-military and security dimensions – the best-performing field of bilateral cooperation – but also on the dimension of economic exchanges. “In parallel, efforts were concentrated on stimulating the upward trend of political dialogue and cooperation on the strategic and military plane, on developing the economic dimension and the energy security dimension, as well as on promoting interpersonal contacts, in order to bring them up to the same level of excellence.”
“Robust cooperation in the security field represents a vital component of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the U.S. The operationalisation of the ballistic missile defence system in Deveselu is one of the joint projects of strategic success and, at the same time, the argument for deepening bilateral cooperation and cooperation within NATO.
“Trade and investments represent another crucial dimension of the Strategic Partnership with the U.S., which offers joint and regional advantages, stimulates mutual economic growth and ensures joint prosperity. To amplify economic exchanges, Romania took the firm commitment, through its governing platforms, to ensure an attractive investment climate, transparent and stable, that would answer the requirements of American, foreign and local investors alike. In the autumn of 2017, Romania will host the ‘Trade Winds’ U.S. economic mission, an event in which over 100 American companies are expected to take part,” the communique adds.
The document also shows that the provisions of the Joint Declaration are in an advanced state of operationalisation, the joint efforts in this sense being coordinated at the level of the bilateral Strategic Dialogue instituted for this purpose, which takes place annually at political level. The most recent reunion – 26 September 2016, in Washington D.C. – reconfirmed the desire to additionally develop relations in the fields mentioned by the document. Sectoral bilateral working groups in the fields of economy/trade, energy security, education/culture/innovation, cybersecurity/digital industry and consular problems/domestic affairs are already operational, including on the visa issue, which also reflects the immediate action priorities. These groups have already convened at the technical level, as part of the interim dialogue that took place at the MAE on 12 April 2017. The next reunion of the Romania – U.S. Strategic Dialogue is expected to take place next autumn, in Bucharest.
The document also reminds that the political dialogue at the highest level was recently reconfirmed through the visit that Romanian President Klaus Iohannis paid to Washington on 9 June 2017, a visit during which U.S. President Donald Trump expressed himself in favour of strengthening the partnership between the United States and Romania.
“The Strategic Partnership is enriched through interpersonal contacts between the two states, being strengthened by a relevant Romanian community in the United States. The additional development of these contacts is a goal shared by both Romania and the United States, through the backing of exchanges in the field of education, research, but also through the additional development of tourism. An important factor consists of Romania’s accession to the Visa Waiver Programme, sustained efforts being currently exerted to fulfil all conditions that the American legislation currently establishes in this regard.
“Currently, Romania and the U.S. are engaged in a consolidated bilateral relationship, reflected by the dynamic and high level of bilateral political dialogue in recent years, by the level of excellence of cooperation in the political-military and security field, marked by the U.S.’s political-military reassurance measures, the opening of the Deveselu Base and the expansion of cooperation at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base, by our country’s decision to earmark 2 percent of GDP for defence, and also by the adoption of measures meant to boost the Romanian business sector’s attractiveness for American investors,” the MAE communique emphasises.
“Romania’s commitment to democratic values, its geostrategic position in the region and macroeconomic stability represent the most solid arguments that Romania is a trusted partner for the U.S. and for the Transatlantic community, in the current geostrategic context marred by regional and global crises.
“Appreciating the efforts exerted since its launch, and saluting the progress registered in 2017, the Foreign Affairs Ministry expresses its conviction that the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States of America will continue to develop and expand, capitalising on all the opportunities and the potential of a remarkable bilateral relation,” reads the MAE communique.
