Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu received Jose Fernandez, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment with the U.S. Department of State, discussing, on this occasion bilateral projects in the field of economic and energy cooperation, especially joint projects in the field of civil nuclear energy, aspects of food security and the security situation in the neighborhood, with its multidimensional implications, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) in a press release, according to Agerpres.

According to the cited source, Minister Bogdan Aurescu highlighted, with reference to the bilateral projects in the civil nuclear field, namely the Cernavoda project and the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) project, „their important potential for strengthening Romania’s energy security and, implicitly, regional level”.

The MAE shows that the two officials also discussed the prospect of including the wind sector among the priorities of bilateral cooperation in the energy field, with Minister Bogdan Aurescu emphasizing the fact that investments in Romania constitute investments in regional stability. At the same time, Aurescu reiterated Romania’s interest and firm commitment to developing bilateral cooperation and highlighted the significant potential in the economic field, of commercial exchanges, included.

„Under Secretary of State Jose Fernandez welcomed the commitment of the Romanian side and emphasized, in his turn, the commitment of the USA in this sense and the importance of intensifying bilateral economic cooperation for the deepening of the Strategic Partnership,” reads the MAE release.

Related to the role of the Black Sea in the global economy, especially in the current regional climate, Minister Aurescu presented Romania’s concrete efforts to support Ukraine, pointing out the contribution of our country in facilitating grain transport.

The MAE press release also says that Undersecretary of State Fernandez noted Romania’s involvement and successes in facilitating the transport of over 4 million tonnes of grain from Ukraine and emphasized that these actions contributed to averting an extremely difficult situation from the point of view of food security at global level. At the same time, the American official noted and thanked for the support provided by Romania to the Republic of Moldova bilaterally and at the level of international institutions.

The projects supported by Romania within the Three Seas Initiative were also addressed, with Minister Bogdan Aurescu emphasizing – with the example of the Rail2Sea project – their relevance for the creation of the infrastructure necessary for the strategic interconnection of the states in the region, appreciating that they will prove their value in the long term, both for the stimulation of economic development, as well as for the facilitation of military mobility on the Eastern Flank, and advocating for a substantial involvement of the USA in carrying them out.

Agerpres