THE WEEK IN REVIEW

March 6 -12

Bogdan Matei, 11.03.2023, 14:00

Visits
in the Far East

The Strategic Partnership between
Romania and Japan proves that the bilateral relations have been lifted up to
the highest level – Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said after signing together
with Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida this bilateral treaty in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, president Iohannis was received by Emperor Naruhito. ‘Romania
and Japan are now close than ever’, says the head of the Romanian state adding
that against the present global background marked by war and regional tensions,
it is important to rely on each other to defend the fundamental values that
define us: the desire for peace and security, freedom, democracy and human
rights, as well as international order based on rules.

According to experts, once the
Strategic Partnership has been signed, the development of the Romanian-Japanese
cooperation will be stepped up through the extension of a wide range of
activities and projects in all the fields of mutual interest. According to
Radio Romania correspondent, president Iohannis’ visit also had an economic
dimension, Japan being the biggest Asian investor in Romania. The 400 companies
with Japanese capital in Romania have created over 40 thousand jobs and the
growth potential is significant including on the fields with the highest degree
of innovation, such as the development of the modular reactors technology, the
production and distribution of green hydrogen, the high-power optical cables,
the latest generation infrastructure or the completion of a new underground sector
in Bucharest. The partnership with Japan has been the second Romania has
concluded with an Asian state after the one with South Korea. From Japan,
president Iohannis went to Singapore.

Romania is the EU’s third biggest provider
of IT services to Singapore and its interest focuses on a stepped up
cooperation in this field through new bilateral projects.

Over 3.7 million Ukrainian refugees to
neighboring Romania

The General Inspectorate
of Border Police, announced that on Wednesday over 7 thousand Ukrainian
nationals entered Romania through its border checkpoints. According to a communiqué
released to the press on Thursday, since 10 February 2022, two week before the
Russian invasion, 3, 705,317 Ukrainian nationals have entered Romania. Most of
them just transited the country towards other destinations in Western Europe and,
according to the Romanian authorities, roughly 100 thousand settled here.

Parliament in Bucharest
endorsed a declaration of support for Ukraine, one year after the Russian
invasion on February 24th. The document endorsed with a landslide
majority by the main political groups, PSD-PNL-UDMR upon the proposal of the
opposition USR is firmly condemning the war Moscow is waging on a sovereign
state, whose territory is inalienable and indivisible. The declaration
reiterates Romania’s firm support for what it defines as the heroic fight of
the Ukrainian state and people as well as for the independence, sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally-recognized borders.

The Romanians in Ukraine

But not everything is
bright in the Romanian-Ukrainian relations. During the debates over the
declaration for the support of Kyiv, George Simion, the president of nationalist
opposition party AUR pleaded for the support of the co-nationals in the
neighboring country. Over 400 thousand ethnic Romanians are living there mostly
in northern Bukovina, the northern and southern Bessarabia and the Herta Land,
Romanian territories the Stalinist Soviet Union annexed through an ultimatum in
1940. These territories were taken over by Ukraine as a successor state back in
1991. After the Russian invasion, many of these ethnic Romanians have been
drafted to fight for Ukraine. In December 2022, The Romanian Foreign Ministry deemed
as regrettable the fact that the law on Ukraine’s national minorities had been
passed in the absence of a new consultation with the Venice Commission. Its opinion, the Bucharest diplomacy believes,
would have certainly contributed to a clear and comprehensive text in keeping with
the European legal standards in the field. According to the aforementioned
ministry, Romania fully supports the European roadmap of Ukraine and its
legitimate desire to join the EU, but points to the fact that the intempestive speeding
of legislation in this field has significantly affected the consultations with
the representatives of the national minorities, which should have got involved
in comprehensive discussions prior to the adoption of the aforementioned law.

The Mystery in the Canal

Authorities in Romania and
Ukraine have agreed to check the depth of the Danube canals, the administration
in Kyiv uses to ship grains abroad – government officials of the two countries
have announced. The Danube is a major transport route for Ukraine, which after
the Russian invasion uses it for the export of various types of goods,
including cereals. The Romanian authorities last month voiced their concern that
Ukraine is trying to deepen the Bystroye canal, which crosses an environmentally
sensitive area and asked if they can check the situation. Kyiv denied that dredging
works on the canal would have violated any accord and agreed to present the EU and
NATO member Romania the stage of the aforementioned works. Experts are
going to start verification this month amid Bucharest’s fears that the works
would affect the Danube Delta’s ecosystem, a unique area in Europe, included on
the UNESCO world heritage. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Infrastructure,
after the cleaning works conducted the depth of the Canal has almost doubled
from 3.9 to 6.5 meters.

(bill)