The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met yesterday at the Palace of Santa Cruz in Madrid with his Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
During their meeting, according to a press release, the two ministers discussed the main issues on the bilateral agenda, including the desire to hold the first Bilateral Summit before the end of the year. For his part, the Romanian Minister invited his Spanish counterpart to visit Bucharest to continue the political dialogue, “an invitation that Minister Albares gladly accepted”, the Romanian Ministry said on its website.
The holding of the first Spain-Romania Bilateral Summit was agreed last February by Arancha González Laya and Bogdan Aurescu himself, during the official visit of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs to Bucharest. On that occasion, the two ministers undertook to hold the summit in June of this year on Spanish territory, but the meeting has been delayed due to the pandemic. The main objective of the bilateral meeting will be the implementation of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
On the other hand, Albares and Aurescu yesterday reviewed European issues, such as the future Spanish presidency of the Council (in the second half of 2023), the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the next European Union-Southern Neighbourhood Ministerial meeting, to be held in Barcelona. Likewise, the Minister reiterated Spain’s support to Romania for its accession to the Schengen Area, having “more than fulfilled the technical requirements for this”, as well as Spain’s favorable position for Romania’s accession to the OECD. In this regard, the head of the Romanian diplomacy thanked Spain for its support both to “Romania’s important objective” of joining the Schengen Area and to its candidacy to the OECD.
During the meeting, Bogdan Aurescu reiterated (as he did with Gonzalez Laya during their February meeting) the desire of the Romanian community living in Spain (made up of about one million people) to move towards the adoption of a dual nationality law between the two countries. The two ministers undertook to continue the dialogue on this matter, according to the Romanian Ministry.
During the meeting, the two ministers publicly presented a bilingual book on the history of diplomatic relations between the two countries and Aurescu gave Albares a complete collection of postage stamps issued by his country’s philatelic authorities on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Albares also congratulated his Romanian counterpart on the exhibition Archaeological Treasures of Romania. Dacian and Roman roots, one of the most important exhibitions of Romanian archaeology abroad, organized at the National Archaeological Museum and inaugurated yesterday by both ministers. “We must make culture, so important in our respective societies, a platform to strengthen ties between our two countries and bring us even closer together,” said the Spanish minister.
In economic terms, Bogdan Aurescu highlighted that, despite the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic, bilateral trade has increased by around 40% in 2021 compared to last year, according to data from last June 30. He also praised the presence of Spanish companies in Romania and the creation of numerous companies, especially micro-enterprises and SMEs, by Romanian entrepreneurs in Spain.
