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Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu announced on Sunday after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, that more than 3,000 Israeli citizens and more than 1,200 Ukrainian citizens of Jewish origin have been supported to enter the territory of our country and then be evacuated to Israel.
"The substantive talks we have had today reflect the excellent level of our bilateral relations, which are of a strategic nature, as well as the common interest of Romania and the State of Israel to develop and deepen the political-diplomatic and sectoral dialogue. This meeting is a continuation the very good contacts we have had as of late, most recently on March 3, when we had a telephone conversation in the context of the dramatic events in Ukraine and, in fact, this visit and our discussions were largely focused on the effects of the illegal aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukraine," minister Aurescu told in a press conference, after the meeting with Yair Lapid.
The head of diplomacy underlined Romania's efforts in the process of evacuating from Ukraine thousands of Israeli citizens or citizens of Jewish origins, including 100 orphans.
"We discussed joint efforts to support the evacuation of people fleeing war, including citizens of the state of Israel. Over 430,000 Ukrainian citizens entered our country through Romania's border crossing points with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, to whom are added a very large number of citizens of other states who have been evacuated, and this number is certainly rising. I assured my colleague of Romania's commitment to providing full support for the further evacuation of Israeli or citizens of Jewish origin from Ukraine. So far, more than 3,000 Israeli citizens, over 1,200 Ukrainian citizens of Jewish origin have been supported by Romania to enter our country and then to be evacuated, with more than 12 flights to Israel, including about 100 orphans who were brought from Ukraine," the Romanian Foreign minister said.
He added that these efforts were made possible by joint efforts due to exemplary cooperation between the authorities, with reference to the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Embassy in Bucharest.
Bogdan Aurescu recalled the recent operationalization in Suceava of a logistics center, intended to collect and transfer international aid to Ukraine, inviting the state of Israel to support this center.
According to the Romanian official, the serious crisis caused by the illegal Russian military aggression against Ukraine is not only a problem of the region or of Europe, but has global effects.
"The serious multidimensional crisis caused by the illegal Russian military aggression against Ukraine is not only a problem of the region, it is not only a problem of Europe, but it also has global effects. That is why it is important and we decided to stay together to maintain close contact and also to act within the framework offered by the various international organizations in order to support the democratic values, in order to support the international law," specified minister Aurescu.
Another topic addressed by the two foreign ministers concerns the preparation of the third joint Romanian-Israeli government meeting (G2G), scheduled for this year.
"Bilaterally, we have discussed the preparation of the next joint government meeting, the third session of the joint government meeting, this year. We discussed the issues of interest within this framework, of the future joint government meeting, because we want to boost our sectoral cooperation in several areas that are extremely important. We agreed that in preparation for the joint government meeting we should organize another meeting of the joint working group on economic issues, which is under the coordination of the two ministries of foreign affairs. We are talking about the economy - in 2021, our total trade will reach almost 885 million US dollars, an increase of almost 240 million dollars compared to 2020 and 2019. We must, therefore, continue our efforts in this regard," explained Aurescu.
He showed there was also increased potential in several areas, including agriculture, water management, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
"We have discussed this issue with Mr. Minister, increasing resilience, research, innovation, development, technology transfer, because it is extremely relevant for the two states to strengthen their prosperity and, at the same time, their ability to meet the challenges of hybrid nature," added Bogdan Aurescu.
The Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister reiterates Romania's firm commitment to fighting anti-Semitism, xenophobia, with our country adopting, last year, a first National Strategy to combat anti-Semitism, to promote memory policies, to combat xenophobia.
At the end of the conference, Bogdan Aurescu thanked Yair Lapid for the support that the state of Israel provided to Romania during the COVID-19 pandemic.
