Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu proposed to his British counterpart Philip Hammond during their meeting in London on Tuesday to fully capitalize the potential of the Strategic Partnership in all cooperation sectors.
Mainly, the two officials tackled the issue of Romanians living in UK.
“Bogdan Aurescu especially insisted during the talks on the necessity of an active cooperation of the two sides in improving the perception about Romanians working in the UK, among this country’s citizens, in continuation of the written document presented on February 23, 2014, following the documentary produced by Channel 4 [e.n. — considered to be discriminating against Romanian citizens in UK]. He insisted thus on how important it is that the British authorities cooperate with the Romanian ones in this effort. The two dignitaries agreed that diplomats from the two Foreign Ministries should meet to establish an inventory of possible lines of actions in regard to this matter,” reads a release issued by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Aurescu also reminded that, according to statistics published in the UK and by the European Commission, the Romanian community in the United Kingdom is a net contributor to the economic and social-cultural life of the host country. Moreover, he showed that Romanians are well integrated in this country, as 3 out of 4 Romanians do have a job, “with the employment rate among the Romanians living in UK being of 77.7 per cent, which is higher than in the case of the British citizens themselves.”
The Romanian minister also pointed out the need of enhancing high-level political dialogue, of keeping the upward trend of the bilateral commercial exchanges, as well as of expanding and varying economic cooperation. FM Aurescu hailed the recent economic mission, United Kingdom Trade and Investment, with about 50 companies prospecting the Romanian market and expressed hope the British investments would rise.
On the other hand, Bogdan Aurescu and Philip Hammond assessed the bilateral cooperation between Romania and the UK within NATO, including the implementation of the NATO Action Plan to increase operational capacity.
“The head of the Romanian diplomacy hailed the contribution announced by the UK on the occasion of the British Minister of Defence’s visit to Bucharest on March 22, to the NATO Force Integration Units within the NATO’s multinational command, to be created in Romania, as well as NATO’s reinsurance measures, through the participation in the naval exercises in the Black Sea this year,” the MFA release also informs.