Our set of foreign policy measures is inseparable from the area of freedom and rights guaranteed by Romania's European Union and NATO memberships, and from the endeavour of fulfilling the fundamental goal of protecting and promoting the values and interests of our country and the well-being and security of our citizens,minister of foreign affairs Luminita Odobescu stated on Sunday, on the occasion of the National Day of Romania, celebrated on December 1.
"Regardless of the difficulties that we have encountered in various periods of our historical journey, we have always remained anchored in the values we believe in and which we have the duty to defend for ourselves and for future generations. These values are at the foundation of our dignity and make us recognized in the world. We display them with pride and defend them with faith," the head of the Romanian diplomacy pointed out.
Odobescu added that our country is an active promoter of respect for the norms of international law and the rules-based international order.
"That is why we pragmatically defend a vision and a national trajectory closely linked to the project of a strong and prosperous Europe and to a North Atlantic Alliance that ensures our security and defence," the Romanian minister specified.
She mentioned the current challenges facing the international environment.
"Thirty-five years after the Iron Curtain fell in Europe, replacing totalitarianism with democracy, we are going through a complex international context, marked by the illegal, unjustified and unprovoked aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, but also against everything that European nations have built for centuries. It is a brutal and unprecedented attack against democracy and freedom and against us, all of us. We act in solidarity with neighbouring Ukraine because this is not only about the moral choice that we have to help an aggressed neighbouring state, but this is also our national interest," said Odobescu.
She highlighted the unconditional support Romania gets from its NATO allies and European partners.
"We remain a state firmly committed to upholding democratic values, human rights, fundamental freedoms, gender equality and combating anti-Semitism, xenophobia and any form of discrimination. Romanian diplomacy will continue to consistently pursue national foreign policy objectives, so that their achievement produces concrete results in the lives of Romanian citizens. This was recently seen with Romania's integration into the Schengen area or the important progress recorded in the procedure for including our country in the US Visa Waiver programme," said Odobescu.
The minister also evoked the 1989 Revolution.
"Thirty-five years since Romania returned to the family of Western democracies, overcoming, through the courage of those who carried out the Romanian Revolution, barriers that seemed insurmountable, the action of Romanian diplomacy, based on dialogue, trust and respect, remains firmly anchored in the service of the values we believe in, of the peace, security and prosperity of all Romanian citizens, wherever they may be," she also stated.
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