MAE welcomes 30-year celebration of Romania-South Korea diplomatic relations

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) welcomes the celebration, on Monday, of 30 years of Romanian-South Korean diplomatic relations, underlining the recent cooperation to combat the new coronavirus.

"The Republic of Korea represents the first and only country in the Asia-Pacific region with which Romania has so far concluded a Strategic Partnership, in 2008, founded on the same democratic values and a common vision regarding the broad development potential of the bilateral relationship," reads a MAE press release sent to AGERPRES on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the three decades of bilateral cooperation, Romania and the Republic of Korea "have built a pragmatic relationship, based on mutual trust and support, which is the foundation of an act of solidarity in the face of current regional and international challenges", an instance of which is the recent acquisition of medical equipment from the Republic of Korea, which contributes to strengthening the capacity of the Romanian authorities to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bilateral political dialogue has recently been strengthened both by the official visit to Bucharest, in October 2018, of the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, and the official visit to Seoul of the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, together with the Minister for the Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, in November 2018, as well as by the meeting of Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu with his counterpart in the Republic of Korea, Kang Kyung-wha, in December 2019, in Madrid, on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). On this last occasion, the two Foreign Ministers reiterated their commitment to diversifying their collaboration in economic and investment terms, as well as in the fields of health, education and culture, in the context of the valorization of the bilateral Strategic Partnership and the EU-Republic of Korea cooperation framework.

The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to act to strengthen the multisectoral interactions between the two countries, with tangible benefits both at bilateral and multilateral level, the source said.

The diplomatic relations between Romania and the Republic of Korea were established on March 30, 1990. In the same year, the two states opened embassies in Bucharest and Seoul.