Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu held bilateral consultations with his Luxembourgian counterpart Jean Asselborn on Thursday as part of a visit to Luxembourg that tackled Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, the security situation in the Black Sea region and support for Moldova, according to Agerpres.

According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE), at a joint news conference Aurescu talked about the importance of Moldova’s European journey.

„It is very important to counteract the effects of Russian aggression on this country. We discussed Moldova’s vulnerabilities in terms of energy security and the important support given by Romania to the neighbouring country,” Bogdan Aurescu showed.

Aurescu said that on Monday he will co-chair in Paris, together with his French and German counterparts, the third edition of the ministerial conference of the Moldova Support Platform.

„Romania supplies the Republic of Moldova with electricity, almost 90% of the country’s demand is covered by Romania. Thus, it is very important that the entire European and international community offer support to Moldova at this moment,” said the head of the Romanian diplomacy.

Regarding Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, Aurescu emphasised „the very positive conclusions of the report of the experts from the member states and the European Commission, which clearly reconfirmed the fact that Romania continues to meet its obligations arising from the application of the Schengen regulations.” He pointed to a European Commission communication on the extension of the Schengen area released on Wednesday.

In his conversation with Aurescu, Asselborn reconfirmed Luxembourg’s strong support for Romania’s accession to the Schengen area. Aurescu particularly thanked Luxembourg for its support for this objective and assured that Romania will remain fully engaged at the political and diplomatic level to mobilise the political support necessary for the rapid adoption of the decision on Romania’s accession to that area.

He also thanked his counterpart for Luxembourg’s intention to deploy a contingent of 25 soldiers to the NATO Battlegroup in Romania, as approved by the Luxembourg’s Parliament.

Agerpres