1) Romania will be celebrating its National Day in December, how is the mission planning to celebrate this occasion?
Given the pandemic situation, for the second year in a row we will not host a big reception. I hope this will be the last year without a big party. Our Honorary Consul in Chennai, Mr. Vijay Mehta, will organise a small reception on December 3rd, with the local authorities, businessmen, consuls and honorary consuls. It will also give me the opportunity to have a first encounter with officials from Tamil Nadu. In Delhi, we are planning to organise a photographic exhibition entitled “Romania – people and places” accompanied by a cocktail. This publication, issued on the occasion of the National Day, will remind our Indian friends about Romania, our presence in India and our thriving bilateral relations.
2) Relations between the two countries continue to strengthen with frequent exchange of visits by political leaders. Can you share some important highlights regarding Romania-India’s bilateral relations?
Based on their commonalities, in March 2013 Romania and India have decided to establish an Extensive Partnership, with a view to leveraging their mutual strengths for each other’s common benefit and socio-economic development. Such partnership reflects the enhanced cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, defence, culture, science & technology, higher education and research, civil nuclear energy, space and agriculture.
In the context of celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relations, the Vice-President of India, Mr. Venkayah Naidu, paid a visit to Romania, in September 2018, followed by a visit of the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs to India, in November 2018.
The pandemic prevented many physical visits in the past year and a half. Nevertheless, when there is a will there is a way, so the interactions at the Foreign Minister level did not miss in 2021. The Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Bogdan Aurescu, attended the annual forum Raisina dialogue virtually, on Tuesday, April 13, during the session with the theme “Reclaiming Europe: Navigating the Political Compass”.
The session focused on the internal and external challenges to Europe in the context dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent developments.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu presented an analysis based on efforts at European level to combat the pandemic, focusing on coordinated actions such as centralized vaccine procurement and post-crisis economic recovery efforts, highlighting the need for effective use of the financial instruments made available to EU Member States.
The Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shri Subramanyam Jaishankar, participated as chief guest, also through video-conference, at the Annual Reunion of Romanian Diplomacy. This year theme was “Resilience in times of the pandemic. Strengthening cooperation amongst partners”. Both ministers underlined, in their interventions, the close bilateral ties, the excellent cooperation in multilateral fora and the common vision shared on the main international issues. We have a thriving economic cooperation, with peak domains like IT, pharmaceutics and metallurgical industry and we are working to deepen our collaboration in the aero-spatial field, defence industry, clean energy production etc.
We hope to have the honour to host in Bucharest Mrs. Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs, before the end of this year.
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