Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Monday that in his conversations with visiting Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soder they highlighted the need to develop co-operation in areas such as artificial intelligence, digital transformation, food industry and agriculture, noting that trade between Romania and the German land of Bavaria in the first 11 months of 2022 neared EUR 7 billion, according to Agerpres.

On Soder’s visit to Romania a joint declaration was signed on strengthening bilateral relations between Romania and the land of Bavaria.

„We had an excellent meeting, because it materialised in the signing of the joint declaration. Basically, we are discussing a declaration that was originally signed in 1999, when the officials of the land of Bavaria made a commitment to supporting Romania on its journey to the European Union. Today, we need this declaration to be revised in order to adjust bilateral relations for the current opportunities and potential. Practically, today’s visit does nothing but underline, once again, the excellent relations between Romania and Germany, between Romania and Bavaria,” Ciuca told a joint news conference with Soder.

Discussions focused on economic co-operation, the identification of new areas in order to raise its level. „Of course, we discussed industrial relations, relations in the area of digital transformation. We also discussed artificial intelligence. There is a lot of potential in what the food industry means and, of course, agriculture co-operation,” said Ciuca.

He announced that an agreement was reached on resuming the activity of a joint governmental committee between Romania and Bavaria.

„There is commitment on both sides, so that the first session of the joint committee may take place as soon as possible in Bavaria and the decisions we will take will help us ensure the co-presidency and everything that the technical staff component entails; we will do so that the committee can have a little more intense activity. Let’s speed up everything that we emphasised at today’s meeting,” added Ciuca.

He emphasised that in Bavaria there is a significant number of Romanian citizens who have integrated very well.

„The prime minister told me that in Bavaria the Romanian community is very consistent. And the way they have managed to integrate, including culturally, brought added value to strengthening the bilateral relations, which gives us confidence that we can identify other solutions, so that we can fulfill our objectives in the declaration we signed today,” added Ciuca.

Romania’s accession to the Schengen area was also on the agenda.

„The prime minister pledged his full support, as well as that of the government of Bavaria, so that this objective of Romania may be achieved as soon as possible; there are premises that, through everything we did, Romania would demonstrate that it is still part of the solution and, practically, the technical level that we have reached in terms of meeting the standards of the Schengen acquis confirms and makes us entitled to insist on Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, especially in the current context,” Ciuca said.

According to Ciuca, the security situation created by the invasion of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine and its humanitarian and economic consequences were also discussed.

„And, of course, we discussed how Romania got involved in supporting the refugees from Ukraine, as well as in the support that the world community has extended to Ukraine so that it can face off the Russian invasion,” Ciuca added.

During the meeting, they also talked about joint support for Moldova.

„We discussed the support that together we can provide to Moldova to secure Moldova’s European path. I mentioned the activities that the government of Romania undertook and, at the same time, I thanked Germany for its involvement in providing the Moldova platform so that European countries can help Moldova cope with the current situation,” Ciuca pointed out.

Agerpres