First meeting of the Trilateral of Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova
Bogdan Aurescu attended the first meeting of the Trilateral of Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
Please find below his speech:
“Dear Dmytro, dear colleagues, dear Nicu,
I think it is a great moment now, a historic moment. This is the first ever Meeting of the Foreign Ministers in this format.
And, also, it is very important that this meeting takes place here, in Odesa, on one hand, and on the other hand because we are joined by our colleagues, ministers dealing with energy in our countries and those colleagues from the competent national institutions which are the right persons to discuss about our trilateral cooperation in this field.
Let me first thank you, Dmytro, for hosting us. It is a great initiative.
At the same time let me congratulate Ukraine, the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian people for the heroic and brilliantly executed counter-offensive, over the past two weeks and, especially, during the last days. This has brought good news to all of us. This was something that we have been expecting since the outbreak of the Russian invasion and I hope this is a decisive step in turning the tide in this brutal, illegal and unjustified war unleashed by Russia against the peaceful people of Ukraine.
Please allow me to introduce my colleagues – the Minister of Energy, Mr. Virgil Popescu, and the Chairman of Transelectrica, Mr. Gabriel Andronache.
The fact that we added the Energy component is vital because this shows our strategic commitment to collaborate in this area of the Trilateral format.
This is also important because this is the first time we meet together in this format after both Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova received the status of candidate for accession in the European Union.
This is a very, very important achievement, which is only the beginning of a journey, but it is a very relevant journey for the prosperity of both Ukrainian and the citizens of the Republic of Moldova.
I would like to tell you, once again, something that you already know - that Romania is fully supporting your effort in this process.
I also think it is very relevant to note the international effort which was behind your resistance against Russia.
As far as Romania is concerned, we have supported Ukraine from the very first day of the conflict. You know very well, dear Dmytro, our support, which was multidimensional.
We have supported you politically, diplomatically and economically, with the transfer of grain through Romania, which is complementary with the deal which was reached at the end of July, which involves also the Odesa port - that’s why it is very meaningful that we are here today.
We have also supported Ukraine in many other areas, especially in the humanitarian field, with the more than 2.3 million Ukrainian refugees that crossed the Romanian border, but also in the field of international law. And I want to inform you about the face that Romania, recently, two days ago, deposited the Declaration of Intervention before the International Court of Justice in the case of the Allegations of Genocide, following our conversation that we had in Bucharest, in April. I am very honored that I was appointed as Agent of Romania in this case.
At the same time, our colleagues from the Republic of Moldova also need a lot of support, because the Republic of Moldova was the most affected of your neighbors, because of the impact of the multidimensional effects of the war, so we tried to support the Government in Chisinau to go beyond these overlapping crises, which are affecting the country very heavily.
So, very importantly, we will discuss about energy today - a great step was achieved when both countries were connected to the European Grid but my colleague, Mr. Popescu, will tell you more about that, both now and during our discussion.
So, you may count on Romania on all dimensions and I am here to show this and we will discuss, of course, more about that.
Thank you!”
