Romanian support for Ukraine
Romania keeps supporting Ukraine, once again reasserting its solidarity with the neighbouring country
Leyla Cheamil, 18.07.2023, 14:00
As a neighbouring state, Romania continues to support Ukraine, in the context of the war launched by the Russian Federation against it. Attending in Brussels summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Romanian head of state, Klaus Iohannis, confirmed that Romania will start trainings next month for the Ukrainian pilots who will learn how to fly F-16 fighters. Bucharest thus joins other NATO allies, which have already started this type of training. According to the president, this process will be a long one.
Bucharest is interested not only in the start of training, but also in a good result in the training of Ukrainian pilots, Klaus Iohannis also said:
It is a process that is important to us and is important to maintain it. We do not train pilots from August to September. It starts at the end of this summer and it’s going to be a long-term project. My interest is to have a well-prepared, solid project with very efficient instructors and to run, here, a successful project for the Romanian Army.
On the other hand, Klaus Iohannis has announced that half of the Ukrainian grains have been exported through Romania, and this process will continue. He made these clarifications against the background of the Russian Federation announcing its exit from the Agreement on the export of grain from Ukraine through the Black Sea.It is regrettable that the initiative, for which many politicians from all over the world were involved, does not seem to have a bright future, said the Romanian president. We believe that it is important and good to be on the side of Ukraine and to support these exports. We will keep doing it in order to prevent discontinuity, the head of state pointed out. The agreement that had guaranteed the export for the pst year expired on Monday at midnight, the deadline set when it was last renewed for two months, in May. Moscow refused to extend the agreement, signed last year, in July, with Ukraine under the auspices of the United Nations and Turkey, denouncing the obstacles in the trade with Russian agricultural products. The last ship carrying grain was inspected on Monday evening in Istanbul.
Despite the war, the agreement allowed the export of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and agricultural products, which are important for ensuring world food security. A consequence of the expiration of this agreement is the significant increase in the price of wheat. Analysts are of the opinion that this will force Ukraine to export the 2023 crop on alternative routes to river ports and towards the European Union borders, given the high logistics costs. (MI)
