President Klaus Iohannis will pay visits to Brussels, Chisinau, Berlin and Paris during the first months of this year, presidential adviser Mihai Razvan Ungureanu said on Monday. The visits are expected to prepare ‘a foreign profile for the president’ Ungureanu added.
The liberal first vice-president underscored ‘the accent will be put on the foreign policy and on security. (…) We have a working programme with daily meetings,’ Ungureanu also said. The presidential adviser added he is in charge with foreign policy and will accompany the president up to the moment when Ambassador Lazar Comanescu takes over the office of presidential adviser. ‘I can offer suggestions, not advice. The talks on foreign visits are essential for the moment,’ Ungureanu said.
President Klaus Iohannis is to pay visits to Brussels in January with important issues on the agenda for NATO and EU talks, with the European Council and European Commission, as well as to the Republic of Moldova.
Ungureanu stressed that January is the month of the first diplomatic corps meeting in Bucharest, the so-called New Year reception, ‘which will offer the opportunity for the most important speech on foreign policy.’ The European Council meeting will take place in the first part of February. Visits are to be paid to Berlin and Paris, the ‘agenda is being worked on’, Ungureanu said.
As far as a visit to the US is concerned, Ungureanu said it will take place at the right moment.
‘A foreign profile is being set up for the president so that he will be a credible personality, well designed and renown as such. His international partners are very important, believe me,’ the former Premier said.
Mihai Razvan Ungureanu underscored his office of presidential adviser is honorific and that he will keep his offices as senator and PNL first vice-president.
New presidential aide named
Also on Monday, President Iohannis appointed another of his presidential advisers, namely Sergiu Nistor, who used to be the governmental commissioner for “Sibiu European Capital 2007” program. Nistor, 54, is an architect, specialized in the inbuilt preservation of the building patrimony. He is the sixth presidential aide appointed by the new Romanian President, after Dan Mihalache, Andrei Muraru, Cosmin Marinescu, Tratiana Niculescu Bran and George Scutaru.