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Greece is dynamically supporting Romania's request to join the Schengen area, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is currently paying an official visit to Bucharest, said on Wednesday.
"I would like to reiterate that Greece is dynamically supporting Romania's request to join the Schengen area. This must happen and the benefits for Romania as a result of this integration will be very important. We had the opportunity to discuss the recent developments in the Western Balkans. We believe that all countries in the Western Balkans have a place in Europe and, by cooperating with them, we will facilitate their integration," said Mitsotakis, at the Victoria Palace, after talks with Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca.
He thanked Prime Minister Ciuca for Romania's support to Greece in matters of national interest. The Greek PM referred thus to Turkey's "illegal actions" in the Western Mediterranean.
"I would like to reiterate Greece's fundamental position: Greece always keeps the threat gate closed, but the dialogue gate is open. The tool, as Prime Minister Ciuca also said, for solving problems is international law, not threats," Mitsotak told a joint press conference with Nicolae Ciuca, Agerpres.ro informs.
The Greek Prime Minister also noted that bilateral trade has reached two billion euros, adding that there are "even more important perspectives."
"We have large Greek companies operating in Romania and they want to expand their investment activity and we have many visitors, many tourists, especially Romanian tourists in Greece. We want even more, we want them to exceed 1 million visitors, which was their number in 2019. Greece is already a country open to visitors all year round, not just during the summer months," added Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He mentioned that a collaboration agreement had been signed in the field of civil protection, highlighting the help offered in "exceptionally difficult situations" by the Romanian firefighters, who proved their "spirit of sacrifice" and professionalism.
"We have the best memories of the heroism of the Romanian firefighters. This heroism was also the starting point of this collaboration in the field of civil protection. We hope that the Romanian firefighters will be present in Greece much more frequently, to collaborate with them including in what concerned the extension of the civil protection mechanism to the European level, by using, of course, the means of air protection and not only," said the Greek Prime Minister.
