Ukrainian-Romanian Bilateral Strategic Cooperation Bolstered by Visit of Romanian Delegation

On October 18, as a representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, I participated in a meeting in our parliamentary leadership with the Governmental delegation of Romania headed by the Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Čolaku.

The Romanian side included the Deputy Prime Minister, the Ministers of Defense, Energy, Agriculture, Economy, Health, and other officials.

An initiative to create an inter-parliamentary assembly was discussed and there was agreement on further activation of contacts and deepening of cooperation.

I emphasized that I completely agrees with the position of the head of the Romanian Government: "There is a war between dictatorship and democracy, and we must do everything necessary for democracy to win."

Seven important agreements were signed at the meeting. In particular, a Memorandum aimed at developing the network of checkpoints between Ukraine and Romania. Also, a Memorandum, which provides for the increase of defense production capacities and the expansion of ammunition production.

In addition, the four most promising directions for the development of cooperation between our countries were identified: logistics, with priority development of the Danube cluster, border infrastructure, agriculture and energy.

Plans for the future include the continuation of cooperation for the formation of strategic partnership relations between the states and for obtaining a reliable partner in the restoration of the Odesa region.

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On the same day, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky also met with the Romanian prime minister. He praised the results of his recent visit to Romania, as well as the first joint meeting of the two governments in the history of Ukrainian-Romanian relations, which also took place in Kyiv.

"This is a great achievement after our agreements at the presidential level to build a strategic partnership between the countries. Today we see the development of these agreements," the president said.