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Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca participated, on Wednesday, together with the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, in the signing of bilateral documents on collaboration in the nuclear field, in which context he thanked the head of the Belgian Executive for the partner country's commitment to the NATO Battle Group deployed in Romania.
During the ceremony held at Prime Minister De Croo's residence, the Nuclear Cooperation Memoranda of Understanding between the Autonomous Technology Agency for Nuclear Energy (RATEN) and the Belgian Center for Nuclear Research was signed, as well as the Bilateral Cooperation Agreement between the Belgian Center for Nuclear Research and the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH).
"I use this opportunity to express Romania's and my personal gratitude for the decision of France, Belgium and the Netherlands to send troops here to increase NATO's deterrence and defense capability on the Eastern Flank. As you mentioned, we met in April , in Romania and we had the opportunity to assess the security context in the Black Sea. I acknowledged on that occasion that there are sectors in which our bilateral relationship could acquire greater consistency. We have already made progress in this regard, today we signed the Nuclear Cooperation Memoranda of Understanding as part of our commitment, within the EU, to find new sources of energy, even if we are talking about the transition to these sources, but they are part of our commitment to achieve one hundred percent independence from the Russian energy source," stated Ciuca, on Wednesday, in joint press statements made together with the Belgian Prime Minister.
The head of the Executive emphasized that Romania is interested in the development of cooperation in the field of semiconductors, stating that 500 million euros are allocated to their research and development under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
In the same context, he thanked the Prime Minister of Belgium for the recognition shown towards the actions taken by Romania in support of the Ukrainian refugees.
Premier Nicolae Ciuca also highlighted the efforts made by the Bucharest authorities in order to support Ukrainian grain exports to Europe and other countries of the world, pointing out the fact that the Romanian authorities are interested in learning from the experience of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in developing the future capabilities of the Port of Constanta.
The Romanian Prime Minister also thanked the Belgian side for its support on Romania's accession to Schengen and the lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.
"We have endeavored to meet all the technical requirements and standards, and of course, if necessary, we are open to clarifying everything, based on all the already existing approaches of the Commission and bilaterally, with each EU partner country that wants to see more than is mentioned in the Commission's report," Ciuca also declared.AGERPRES
