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Romania has always been in search of solutions to strengthen security in the Black Sea, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, told on Tuesday a joint press conference that he held in Ankara, with his Turkish counterpart, Mervlut Cavusoglu, told Agerpres.
"One of the important topics we discussed was security in the Black Sea region. We discussed the optimal methods of cooperation, both at the bilateral level and within NATO (...) Romania has always been concerned with identifying solutions to strengthen security at the Black Sea," Minister Aurescu told the joint press conference with Cavusoglu.
The head of Romanian diplomacy also referred to the establishment of a joint working group in which Turkey and Romania will be able to discuss "the most important aspects concerning the Black Sea, security in the Black Sea, economic development, ensuring freedom of navigation."
"It is obvious that we need to increase NATO's capacity for strategic knowledge and situational knowledge of security developments in the Black Sea," said Aurescu.
In this context, he also mentioned the establishment of the Romania-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council, namely the mechanism of joint government meetings.
"This mechanism allows us a structured approach, an approach that will allow the development of our relations on various levels to be stimulated in an even more coordinated and organized way," added Aurescu.
Looking at the prospect of Sweden and Finland joining NATO, the Romanian Foreign Minister appreciated that this will "represent a plus for the security of the Euro-Atlantic space as a whole, especially in the current geopolitical context."
"The fact that two neutral states until the outbreak of this war of Russia against Ukraine decided to abandon their traditional policy of neutrality for decades and because of this war decided to join the North Atlantic Alliance, here is an effect for which I believe that we have to thank President Putin, from this perspective," added the Romanian minister.
Minister Aurescu had bilateral consultations with the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, during the official visit made by the head of Romanian diplomacy to the Republic of Turkey, at the invitation of his counterpart.
The two high officials appreciated the importance of the Strategic Partnership for strengthening the close ties between the two states and referred to the dynamic bilateral dialogue and the very good level of collaboration on various dimensions.
They finalized and agreed on the text of the Political Declaration establishing the Romania-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council, organized in the form of a permanent joint meeting of the two Governments, focused on strategic areas of common interest, which will be launched in 2023.
During the meeting, they also discussed cooperation in the field of energy, recognized by both interlocutors as a priority field, especially from the perspective of current challenges. Thus, they agreed to strengthen joint efforts to ensure the security of Romania's supply by transiting the territory of Turkey.
