Romania’s foreign minister visits Israel and the Palestinian territories

Romania supports fresh Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said its foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu during a trip to the region.

Daniela Budu, 21.10.2015, 14:36

The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu has
travelled to Israel and Ramallah, in the West Bank, a territory under the
control of the Palestinian Authority. During his meeting with the Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu and deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely, the
Romanian official proposed a new joint meeting of the Israeli and Palestinian
governments to be held next year. This is what he told Radio Romania:

The relationship between Romania and Israel is very
good, even privileged, I would say, in political terms. We have very good contacts
at all levels and the consistency of bilateral ties, established 67 years ago,
has been appreciated during the talks with the Israeli officials. I have agreed
with prime minister Netanyahu and Ms Hotovely to prepare a new joint meeting of
the Israeli and Palestinian governments. The last such meeting was held in
2014. I also proposed to hold, as soon as possible, most likely also early next
year, the first meeting of the joint commission on bilateral economic
relations. At over 530 million dollars in 2014, the amount of trade exchange
between Romania and Israel is relatively high, compared with other states in
the region. This is still not enough, if we look at how much potential the
relationship between the two countries has.

According to the Romanian foreign minister, there is
good premise for Israeli investment in Romania, for increasing the level of
trade exchange and for developing projects in fields like IT and cyber
security, areas in which Romania has very good specialists and a number of achievements
to its name. During his visit to the Palestinian territories, Bogdan Aurescu
had talks with president Mahmoud Abbas and other high officials about the
security situation in the region and the future of the peace process in the
Middle East. Bogdan Aurescu:

It is important to work on building trust between
the two sides. In the talks I had with officials from both sides, I noted there
is a big trust issue that needs to be addressed. Starting from this effort of
reconsolidating and rebuilding trust we can hope that, with the support of
the international community, the European Union and the United States, the
peace process in the Middle East and direct talks can be resumed.

At the meeting with the members of the Romanian
community in Palestine, Bogdan Aurescu voiced the readiness of the Romanian
state to support citizens who find themselves in difficult situations in other
countries. Also, Aurescu expressed his appreciation of the Romanian-born
members of the Israeli community and emphasised the positive image they have in
the Israeli society and the important role they play in consolidating bilateral
ties.