Officials from
the country and abroad, independent experts, representatives of the business
environment, academia and the diplomatic corps have gathered in the Romanian
mountain resort of Sinaia to participate in the international conference The
Reconstruction of Ukraine and the Strategic Role of Romania, organized by
the New Strategy Center. The relations between Romania and Ukraine will soon
reach a true strategic partnership, in which an essential component will be the
logistic center on the territory of our country for the reconstruction of and
assistance for Ukraine, said the head of the Romanian Government, Marcel
Ciolacu. He also stressed that Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of
Ukraine threatens the security of all of Europe and assured that Romania will
continue to support the Euro-Atlantic community’s measures to rebuild Ukraine
and be the promoter of the European integration process of the neighboring
state.
Marcel Ciolacu: Romania has
implemented complex measures. More than half of the total Ukrainian
agricultural products, exported through the European Union’s olidarity lanes, have
been transferred via Romania. We have planned extensive investments to increase
Romania’s transport capacity so that Ukraine benefits from the best connections
to the European and international markets. We keep our doors open for all
international partners who want to come and invest in the future of Ukraine.
The connections we are going to build will serve both maritime and land lanes
in Central and South-Eastern Europe. Some plans were already underway under the
auspices of the European Union or the Three Seas Initiative, but they will now
gain in speed of implementation.
For his part,
the Speaker of the Romanian Senate and former Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă, has
stated that the reconstruction process of Ukraine should not wait for the end
of the military conflict. He believes that at political level, a concrete plan
must be established for the platform regarding the reconstruction process, but
also for supporting the Republic of Moldova.
Nicolae Ciucă: This
hub must be created now. We have been talking about prepositioning, but in
order to preposition there must be some concrete elements in terms of capabilities that can be designed and
prepositioned in our country.
A video message
also came from the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal. He expressed confidence that his country will
soon be part of the family of European nations and described the
Romanian-Ukrainian partnership as broad and comprehensive.
Denys Shmyhal: Cooperation on the logistics side is particularly important. 70% of our
grains are exported through Romania. Thus, Ukraine continues to be a guarantor
of global food security. We are confident that, soon, we will be part of the
only family of the European nation. We have hopes regarding Romania’s
participation in the reconstruction of Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure.
Issues such as
the role of the Danube, challenges for freedom of navigation, energy security,
food security and critical infrastructure are other topics addressed at the conference. (MI)