Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis will participate, on Monday and Tuesday, in the third summit meeting of the European Union – Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU – CELAC) in Brussels, write Agerpres.

The main purpose of the meeting is to reinvigorate the EU-CELAC partnership amid complex international geopolitical developments influenced also by Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Presidential Administration informs.

The renewed partnership will primarily focus on sustainable connectivity, supporting green transition and digital transformation, 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.

Iohannis will voice Romania’s support for the major objective of the European Union to revitalise its partnership with the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, also materialised by organising this summit, the first of its kind in the last eight years.

Iohannis will speak in favour of the importance of EU-CELAC co-operation for managing the new global challenges, the complex crises facing both regions, and also the new development opportunities that can be brought to fruition through more in-depth co-operation.

He will also show that Romania’s active commitment to closer co-operation between the two areas was reconfirmed in all the meetings he had with his counterparts during the visits he made to Brazil, Chile and Argentina in April 2023, during which he prioritised the preparations for the high-level meeting in Brussels.

The President will participate in a roundtable conference on combating climate change by moving towards a fair and sustainable transition to advocate for an active role Romania is prepared to take up in the EU-CELAC co-operation in this field.

Established in 2011, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is a Latin American regional bloc of a predominantly political nature designed to deepen the process of regional integration of the 33 member states. Its acting presidency is provided by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The previous EU-CELAC meetings at the highest level took place in 2013 and 2015.

The European Union launched on June 7 a joint communication on a new agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean. It provides for the modernisation and consolidation of the strategic partnership by strengthening political commitment, increasing trade and investment and building more resilient, sustainable and interconnected societies under projects financed under the Global Gateway strategy.