The Diplomat
The State Secretary for the EU, Juan González-Barba, and his Romanian counterpart, Iulia Matei, inaugurated yesterday the exhibition 140 years of Spanish-Romanian relations at the Palacio de Viana in Madrid, official residence and representation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The exhibition, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Romanian Embassy in Madrid, is part of a series of events scheduled this year in both countries to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.
The exhibition consists of 30 panels covering from 1801, with the figure of Ignacio María del Corral y Aguirre, Spanish diplomat in Bucharest, to the present day, including the establishment of relations in June 1881 and a whole historical journey since then: the Barcelona Exhibition in 1929, the two World Wars, the Spanish Civil War and Transition or state visits, such as the one made by the President of Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu, in 1979.
In addition to these 30 panels, the four showcases featuring original bilateral treaties from 1908 to 1930, archives on humanitarian actions of the Romanian legation in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War and on the rescue of Jews in Romania carried out by Spanish diplomat José de Rojas y Moreno stand out. The exhibition will be moved on May 12 to the Senate headquarters on the occasion of the official visit of the President of the Romanian Senate, Anca Dragu, which will take place on May 13 and 14.
Apart from the inauguration, Juan González-Barba held a meeting with Iulia Matei in which they analyzed the main aspects of the bilateral relationship between Spain and Romania, “strategic partners in the framework of the EU and NATO”, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, and her Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu, made a commitment last February in Bucharest to hold the first Spain-Romania Bilateral Summit in June this year on Spanish territory, during which the Strategic Partnership between the two countries will be launched.
In addition to the economic relations between the two countries, with more than 350 Spanish companies present in Romania, with a total Spanish investment stock amounting to 1,766 million euros and a bilateral trade exceeding 3,500 million in 2020, Spain has a very large Romanian community, made up of nearly one million people very well integrated in the country. During González Laya’s visit, Aurescu thanked the Spanish authorities for “the constant support given to Romanian citizens” and reiterated his desire to move towards the adoption of a dual nationality law between the two countries, “a desire that the Romanian community constantly transmits to us”.
The two State Secretaries also addressed yesterday various aspects of the European agenda, such as coordination in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Future of Europe Conference, the Internal Market and the digital and green transformation, the future of EU relations with the UK, EU enlargement, the Eastern Partnership and the Southern Neighborhood, and the EU-Mercosur Agreement. They also discussed the European Commission’s proposed Migration and Asylum Pact and the reform of the Schengen Area.
