President Klaus Iohannis will participate on July 17 – 18 in the third EU – Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-CELAC) Summit that will take place in Brussels, write Agerpres.

The main purpose of the meeting is to relaunch the EU-CELAC partnership, amid the complex international geopolitical developments influenced including by Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Presidential Administration informed. According to the cited source, the renewed partnership will primarily focus on sustainable connectivity, support for the green transition and digitization, increasing the resilience of value chains on the two continents, reaffirming the importance of multilateralism, the principles of the UN Charter, good governance and democratic values.

President Iohannis will express Romania’s support for the EU’s major goal of relaunching the partnership with the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, also materialized in the organization of this summit, the first of its kind in eight years.

The head of the state will highlight the importance of EU-CELAC cooperation for managing the new global challenges, the complex crises faced by both regions, but also the new development opportunities that can be brought to fruition through a more in-depth cooperation.

Klaus Iohannis will also show that Romania’s active commitment to closer cooperation between the two areas was reaffirmed in all the meetings he had with his counterparts during his South American tour to Brazil, Chile and Argentina in April this year, where he prioritized preparations for the high-level meeting in Brussels, the Presidential Administration also notes.

The president will also participate in the round table meeting on Combating Climate Change: Towards a Fair and Sustainable Transition, where he will support the active role Romania is prepared to take up in the EU-CELAC cooperation in this field.

Established in 2011, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is a Latin American regional bloc with a predominantly political character, designed to deepen the process of regional integration of the 33 member states. The Pro Tempore Presidency is currently provided by St Vincent and the Grenadines. The previous top-level EU-CELAC meetings took place in 2013 and 2015.

In anticipation of next week’s meeting, the European Union launched on June 7 the Joint Communication „A New Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean”, which proposes a stronger and modernised strategic partnership by reinforcing political commitment, boosting trade and investments and building more resilient, sustainable and interconnected societies through projects financed under the Global Gateway strategy.