President Iohannis hails Germany's decision to get involved in Three Seas Initiative, participate in Bucharest Summit

President Klaus Iohannis on Monday hailed Germany's decision to get involved in the Three Seas Initiative and participate in the Bucharest Summit due 17 and 18 September, as a partner, says a release by the Presidential Administration.

The President made this statement upon welcoming at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace German Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas, who has participated in the afternoon in the reunion of the Romanian Diplomatic Corps, at the Parliament Palace.

"Romania's President said that both Germany and the Three Seas Initiative stand to gain from this collaboration," the release reads, stressing that Germany's involvement will strengthen the Initiative's capacity to attain its goal of boosting the growth of the region's economic development and interconnection, to the very benefit of the entire European Union, as well as that of the German companies interested to extend their operations in Central and Eastern Europe.

President Iohannis also saluted the very good cooperation with Germany in European affairs and the availability of this state to back the accomplishment of the general objective of Romania's Presidency of the Council of the European Union to move forward the European agenda. The President asserted in the context that the Sibiu Summit due in May 2019 will be a good opportunity to assess the propositions, the ideas and the expectations of the Member States and the citizens regarding the Union's future.

The President has also emphasized the very good level of the bilateral relationship, stressing that it is a special one, with a strategic character and extremely important to our country.

President Iohannis underlined "the balanced nature" of the trade between the two countries and the fact that Germany is Romania's most important commercial partner and the 3rd investor in Romania's economy.

According to the release, the President mentioned that the good economic cooperation between the two countries is also advocated by the German minority of Romania, alongside the increasing Romanian community on Germany's soil, both of which making a "real bridge" between the two countries.

In his turn, the German Foreign Affairs Minister hailed the quality of the Romanian-German partnership and expressed his support for President Iohannis's open, pro-European policy. Moreover, Heiko Maas stressed Germany's full availability to back the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2019. The German dignitary reiterated his country's interest in getting involved in the support of the Three Seas Initiative, as well as in participating in the Initiative's Bucharest Summit, hosted by President Klaus Iohannis.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Maria Voican, editor: Simona Iacob)