The Diplomat
The Romanian Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, paid a working visit to Madrid this week, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the launching of the strategic partnership between the two countries.
The minister’s visit was organized by the Romanian Embassy in Spain and took place from February 6 to 7. “Romania and the Kingdom of Spain maintain a privileged relationship, strengthened last year with the holding of the first joint meeting between the governments of the two countries on November 23 in Castellon,” the Embassy recalled in a press release.
The Minister’s working visit “comes as a natural continuation of that historic event, at a time of anniversary, ten years after the launch of the strategic partnership between Romania and the Kingdom of Spain, precisely to implement innovative practices of cooperation contained in the Memorandum of Understanding signed at the High Level Meeting last year,” it added. On July 22, 2013, the then Prime Minister of Romania, Victor Ponta, paid an official visit to Madrid for consultations with his then Spanish counterpart, Mariano Rajoy. During that meeting, the two heads of government decided to endow the relationship between the two countries with a strategic character.
During his visit to Madrid, Alexandru Rafila was received by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, at the headquarters of the Carlos III Health Institute, to address, among other issues, the challenges facing public health systems in the post-pandemic context, the use of technologies, especially digitalization, in favor of patients and opportunities for cooperation in advanced medical research, training of specialists and human resources in the medical field.
The agenda of the working visit to Madrid included a meeting with the president of the Health and Consumption Commission of the Congress of Deputies, Rosa María Romero Sánchez, and a visit, accompanied by Ambassador George Gabriel Bologan, to the ROVIFARMA laboratory in Alcalá de Henares, where a meeting was held with the management of the Association of Spanish Pharmaceutical Companies. The working visit ended at the Embassy headquarters, where a meeting was held with representatives of the Romanian community in Spain, especially doctors, pharmacists and nurses, to discuss issues of interest in the medical field.
