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Romania and Italy will continue to strengthen cooperation at all levels to strengthen both the security and the prosperity of the European space and the two states, Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Monday at the joint press statements held with Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio, who is on an official visit in Bucharest.
"Naturally, the main topic of our talks has been the serious security situation in Ukraine, which affects the entire European and Euro-Atlantic space. We are clearly calling on Russia to end its illegal aggression against Ukraine, to stop hostilities, to withdraw its troops from the entire territory of Ukraine," minister Aurescu said.
He added that he reaffirmed Romania's full support for Ukrainian refugees coming to our country, recalling that Italy was the first state to use the humanitarian logistics center organized in Suceava, which became operational on March 9.
The head of the Romanian diplomacy mentioned that, starting with February 24, the Romanian authorities facilitated the safe transit of over 2,000 Italian citizens who came from Ukraine.
He stressed that the talks focused, in "detail", on the fact that the Republic of Moldova also needs enhanced support, both for the management of refugee flows that are in large numbers on the territory of this state, and in terms of other challenges that Chisinau has to deal with.
Minister Aurescu said that Romania and Italy are "closely" coordinating with the North Atlantic Alliance to strengthen the position of deterrence and defense on the Eastern Flank, which is extremely necessary in the current security context, and thanked his counterpart in Rome for the support it provides for the acceleration of the process of creating the NATO battle group on the Romanian territory.
Another topic addressed by the two foreign ministers was the European Strategic Security Compass, Aurescu stating that Romania's position is that the founding document should reflect transatlantic solidarity and complementarity of action between the EU and NATO, as well as the level of threat posed by Russia to the European security architecture.
According to minister Aurescu, Romania and Italy are actively involved in EU-level talks aimed at adopting additional sanctions against Russia.
Bilaterally, the Minister of Foreign Affairs added, Romania and Italy have a consolidated Strategic Partnership, meant to be developed and adapted to the current realities at European and international level.
Bogdan Aurescu also pointed out that the strong ties between the two states are also strengthened by the large Romanian community in Italy and thanked his counterpart for the way in which the peninsular authorities integrated this community.
In terms of economic cooperation, Aurescu mentioned that Italy remains the second most important trading partner of Romania, and in 2021 a new all-time high of trade was recorded - 16 billion euros.
The head of the Romanian diplomacy also thanked his counterpart for the constant support that Italy gives to our country for accession to the Schengen Area.
