The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, had, on Thursday, in New York, a meeting with his counterpart from the Maldives, Abdulla Shahid, former President of the UN General Assembly, and with Victoria Hallum, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the New Zeeland, in the context of participation in the UN General Assembly, according to Agerpres.

According to a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the discussions with the counterpart in the Maldives were mainly aimed at the intensification of sectoral cooperation between the two states.

„The two officials agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation in the consular field, at the level of the diplomatic institutes of the two countries, as well as in terms of disaster management, tourism and agriculture. Also, the head of Romanian diplomacy and the counterpart from the Republic of Maldives agreed to cooperate closely in the field of combating climate change, starting from the similar approaches of the two countries in this field, the Maldives being a state that directly feels the effects of these phenomena,” according to the quoted source.

The two ministers also discussed the rise in the level of seas and oceans, as a direct effect of climate change, a subject of major interest for small island states. Bogdan Aurescu presented the activity on this subject at the level of the International Law Commission (CDI), of which he is a member, including in his capacity as co-president of the Study Group dedicated to this topic within the CDI.

Minister Bogdan Aurescu presented Romania’s assessment of the global implications of the invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, especially the food and humanitarian crisis, and the efforts of our country in support of Ukraine and in order to combat the effects of the food crisis, which have allowed, until this moment, the transit of about four million tons of Ukrainian grain to destinations around the world, adds the cited source.

During the meeting with Victoria Hallum, deputy minister for multilateral and legal affairs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, the discussions focused on the cooperation of the two states in a multilateral plan, mainly in the field of international law, with an emphasis on holding Russia accountable for illegal actions against Ukraine, as well as on the subject of climate change, with an emphasis on the rise in sea and ocean levels, the MAE release reads.

Minister Bogdan Aurescu addressed the challenges generated by Russia’s illegal, unjustified and unprovoked aggression in Ukraine, presenting the multidimensional efforts that Romania, as a neighboring state and close partner of Ukraine, undertook to reduce the negative effects of the war.

They also discussed current issues within the International Law Commission (ILC) of the UN, especially on the topic of legal solutions to the negative effects of rising sea and ocean levels, considering the quality of the Romanian head as co-president of the Study Group of CDI dedicated to the theme of sea and ocean level rise in relation to international law.

Agerpres