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The Romanian state "is a great friend" of Israel and cooperation with Romania is currently on "an upward trajectory," the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on Thursday broadcast by Antena 3 private television station, while specifying that he was looking forward to have concrete discussions with Prime Minister Viorica Dancila in Varna on Friday, to identify new modalities of developing the relations between the two countries.
"We cooperate in so many areas. Israeli investors invested in Romania, first of all because they thought it was good businesses, but also I think it's a reflection of sympathy. We cooperate in matters of security, anti-terror. Romania stands often with Israel in difficult diplomatic arenas and we appreciate this. We recognize our friends and we consider Romanian a great friend," said Netanyahu.
Asked to give a mark to the Romanian-Israeli relations at this point, Benjamin Netanyahu said it was close to the top.
The head of the Israeli government used this occasion to speak of the danger of "radical Islam," which is one of the common concerns he said he will approach at the high-level meeting Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, which takes place in Varna.
"We are a common civilization (Israel and Romania - editor's note), not only because we have this human bridge of close to half of million Israeli who come from Romania, but also because we are being challenged by the forces of radical Islam that want to bring down our civilization, kill our people. And we see that the sources of militant Islam are not only the extreme, the radical Sunnis like Al-Waida and now Daesh, ISIS (the Islamic State), but also Iran, the radical Shia that it leads; they have just sponsored several terrorist attacks on the soil of Europe, which we hope prevent. So we have a common interest to both bring our countries forward, bring a better life to our people, but also bring a safer life to our people against these common threats. And all of these I look forward to discussing with the leaders here, in Varna," said Netanyahu.
He underscored the fact that he is "very proud" to be the first foreign leader to be invited to the summit and specified that he took it as "a compliment to his country and people and to our friendship."
