Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has welcomed on Thursday Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, as part of his guest’s official visit to Bucharest. Later in the day the two presidents will hold a press conference.
Poroshenko’s schedule also includes lunch with Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos.
The two officials have had talks, followed by official discussions between the two parties’ delegations.
At the very beginning, President Klaus Iohannis has greeted the guest by saying “it is a great pleasure” to have him in a state visit, after the “very good” visit he paid to Ukraine.
Klaus Iohannis stated that Romania is ready to endorse Ukraine in its domestic reforms needed to honour its commitments upon its association with the European Union.
“I wanted to reassure President Poroshenko of Romania’s strong and constant support to the Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. Respect for the principles and norms ruling the international relations were the basis of our foreign policy relations, and Romania will not change from this point of view. Romania is ready to support Ukraine in its domestic reforms process necessary to fulfilling the commitments it has assumed to be the EU’s partner,” Iohannis in a joint statement with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.
Corruption topic tackled
In his turn, the Ukrainian president stated that the efficiency of the anti-corruption fight is quite large in his country.”Yesterday’s decision by the European Commission regarding the proposal of the visa lifting for the Ukrainian citizens shows that Ukraine has implemented 140 points on the reform list. Great part of these 140 reforms referred to the anti-corruption fight. It also means setting up the infrastructure for the fight against corruption, setting up a national anti-corruption agency, a specialized Prosecutor’s Office against corruption, a national agency for corruption prevention and many other bodies,” Poroshenko stated at Cotroceni Palace.
President Klaus Iohannis also referred to corruption, saying that he is content with the activity of the Romanian anti-corruption Directorate (DNA), while stressing that the anti-corruption fight is vital for our country.
He said that DNA’s work is not a political one. “The fight against corruption is going at full speed, much to the pain of the corrupt people. The fact that we are in the pre-electoral campaign has no relevance to the way DNA is fighting against corruption and corrupt persons,” the Romanian president underlined.
Re-launch of the joint Romanian-Ukrainian presidential committee
President Iohannis also announced that he had signed together with Petro Poroshenko a protocol regarding the re-launch of the joint Romanian-Ukrainian presidential committee, while adding that, by this protocol, new steps would be taken to solve old files on the bilateral agenda such as the Bystroe Canal.
The Romanian President pointed out that there is agreement on developing several regional cooperation projects. “We agreed on developing cross-border and regional cooperation projects on several fields- economic, touristic, environment, infrastructure construction. In this respect, we mentioned the possibility of building the bridge on Tisa, Sighet-Solotvino,” Iohannis said.
He also added that the cultural and educational cooperation should be enhanced, expressing hope that the Romanian Cultural Institute in Kiev would be operational as soon as possible, next to the branch in Cernauti.
The two presidents also signed two bilateral agreements on the military transports and the joint border patrolling.
Support for NATO joint fleet initiative at the Black Sea
Ukraine’s President said in his turn that he supports Romania’s initiative on setting up a joint NATO fleet at the Black Sea, stressing that the Misk agreements must be enforced.
“Annexation of Crimea, the Russian units’ presence in Donbas, the Russia part’s breaking the Misk protocol create dangers for the current international affairs system. Ukraine and Romania cannot accept that. We are pleased to see that our states have one main stance. The debates regarding the abolition of the sanctions against Russia cannot take place until it puts an end to the aggression,” the Ukrainian head of state argued.
On March 17, 2015, Klaus Iohannis paid an official visit to Kiev where he voiced his firm support for Ukraine’s getting closer to the European Union.
Iohannis announced back then that he agreed with Poroshenko on the two countries enhancing the visibility of the Romanian communities in Ukraine and the Ukrainian communities in Romania.