The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who is currently on a working visit to Washington, has had talks with US President, Joe \u00a0Biden, at the White House.<\/p>\n
The two leaders have approached topical issues on the bilateral and international agenda and have also celebrated Romania\u2019s 20th year as a member of the NATO Alliance.<\/p>\n
The two presidents\u00a0 have underscored their continued support for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russia\u2019s aggression. They have also reviewed the many areas in which Romania and the United States work together, including energy, economic cooperation and their shared democratic values.<\/p>\n
President Biden has thanked President Iohannis for hosting U.S. servicemembers in Romania, and has recognized the many contributions that Romania, a stalwart NATO Ally, has made to security on NATO\u2019s eastern flank, particularly in the Black Sea region, a White House press release reads.<\/p>\n
In his opening remarks, the U.S. President Joe Biden has praised the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis for his leadership and for providing security assistance during the war in Ukraine.\u00a0 \u201cWe were reminiscing for a moment before you came in that, back when I was a senator, 180 years ago, I fought very hard for Romania\u2019s admission to NATO.\u00a0 And you, you\u2019ve exceeded every expectation. And 20 years ago, when you joined NATO for real, and every year since, our nations have grown only closer, in my view, closer and closer together. \u00a0And we see it in Romania and American troops serving side by side across NATO, and including in your country.\u00a0 I believe there\u2019s about 1,800 American forces there.\u00a0 We thank you for that.\u00a0 And, we see our work in strengthening NATO\u2019s eastern flank. And I want to thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership, especially in the Black Sea.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been incredible.\u00a0 You\u2019ve stood up, and the help you\u2019ve provided for Ukraine is real.\u00a0 It\u2019s significant. The unified support for the people of Ukraine, \u00a0you\u2019ve allowed a number of refugees to come across, be in your country, about 8,000, they tell me.\u00a0 A whole lot.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really something. And, also, your security assistance to Ukraine, moving Ukrainian grain. And I want you to know the United States is committed to standing with you. Today, we lay the foundation for the next 20 years.\u00a0 I look forward to our discussions and just say that we\u2019ve got a lot to discuss, so I\u2019m looking forward to it\u201d, President Biden said.<\/p>\n
In his turn, President Iohannis thanked President Biden for the substantial contribution of the United States to ensuring the security of Romania and for strengthening the bilateral relationship:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe managed not only to be members of NATO, thanks to you and others who really fought for us \u00a020 years since Romania is a proud member of NATO, but we also managed to work on our bilateral relationship, which became stronger and stronger. We have a Strategic Partnership.\u00a0 And I think by making this partnership strong, we also managed to make the transatlantic link strong.\u00a0 In my opinion, a transatlantic link is the cornerstone of our democratic way of life, our values. \u00a0\u00a0And so, this is obviously linked to the way we see the future of our nations; how we manage to make our nations work better, live better; how we manage to guarantee the security of our peoples; how we manage to make our economies grow. \u00a0And so, we have, really, a lot of issues we can discuss.\u00a0 But also, sometimes I believe it is important to underline that we managed to move ahead and that we managed to have very positive results.\u00a0 And, of course, we will discuss things we still have to achieve. And so, maybe just an example: We are working together on a visa waiver for Romania.\u00a0 If this goes well, hopefully, not before long, we will have results. But unfortunately, the most important issue is to find the way to reinstall peace in Europe.\u00a0 And helping Ukraine and the Ukrainians, \u00a0you set such a huge example how this can be done. Romania is trying its best, and we have some pretty good results.\u00a0 I think it is decent.\u00a0 But nevertheless, we have to find ways to prevent Russia to win this war in Ukraine.\u00a0 And here we have to stay united.\u00a0 We have to work together.\u00a0 And we will, as far as I can see.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Biden added: \u201cLet me just say one thing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any NATO partner who has a stronger commitment to the Euro-Atlantic alliance than Romania and the United States.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a value set.\u00a0 It\u2019s what we believe (\u2026) \u00a0And you\u2019ve stepped up, and you\u2019ve been incredible.\u00a0 And what you\u2019ve done and what we\u2019re going to continue to do together, I think, is going to be significant, not only for Europe but for the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Romanian Presidential Administration, the top level dialogue represents a good opportunity to raise the profile of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US and to reconfirm the privileged bilateral relations between the US and Romania as well as\u00a0 their multisectoral cooperation.<\/p>\n
“I had a very consistent discussion today in Washington, D.C., with the President of the US, Joe Biden, at the White House, on the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States\ud83c\uddf8, including cooperation on security, economic and energy issues. As we celebrate 20 years since Romania joined NATO, we also discussed our strong collaboration in securing the Eastern Flank of the Alliance, the strategic importance of the Black Sea region, as well as our support for Ukraine and strengthening transatlantic relations”, Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis wrote on X, fresh from the talks he had with President Joe Biden, at the White House.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI talked with President Biden about the Strategic Partnership between our countries, how we can make it stronger and how we can deepen it, so that it meets the challenges we face in this extremely complicated global context. I thanked President Biden for the substantial contribution of the United States to ensuring the security of Romania and of the entire Eastern Flank and, at the same time, for recognizing the strategic role of the Black Sea, in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine\u201d the Romanian\u00a0 head of state told a press conference.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, President Klaus Iohannis will be awarded the 2024 Distinguished Leadership Award by the Atlantic Council,\u00a0 in token of recognition for his career and \u00a0role as a trans-Atlantic and European leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, who is currently on a working visit to Washington, has had talks with US President, Joe \u00a0Biden, at the White House. The two leaders have approached topical issues on the bilateral and international agenda and have also celebrated Romania\u2019s 20th year as a member of the NATO Alliance. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":757078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29362,147266,29302,28945,45762,116464,28905,29523],"coauthors":[115213],"class_list":["post-757051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-black-sea","tag-distinguished-international-leadership-award-en","tag-joe-biden","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-nato-2","tag-romania-en","tag-ukraine","tag-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n