Foreign relations of Romania

On Friday, President Klaus Iohannis signed accreditation decrees for several Romanian ambassadors, including Cristian Istrate to Russia, Bogdan Manoiu to Canada and Daniela-Laura Popescu to the UK.

A Romanian national has requested to be repatriated from Wuhan, China, an area affected by a new coronavirus, while two other Romanians, from part of the same province, Hubei, have been in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) through their employer.

It's abnormal for Romania to have, for years, embassies without ambassadors, Theodor Paleologu, the People's Movement Party (PMP) candidate for the presidential elections, stated at a press conference in Iasi on Friday. "It's inadmissible for an embassy to not have ambassadors for more than two to three weeks.

The ties between Romania and the US have peaked since the establishment of diplomatic relations almost 140 years ago, Romania's Ambassador to the United States George Maior emphasizes in a viewpoint presented in a press release broadcast on Thursday evening about the state of the Romanian-American relations, "in the context of the interest expressed by some public voices in Romania".

Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu on Friday, on the sidelines of the participation in the general debates of the current UN General Assembly session, had meetings with counterparts of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Bulgaria is to have a diplomatic mission in the United Arab Emirates, and an embassy will be set up in Dubai, the government has announced.

The two countries have maintained diplomatic relations since 1991. None of the two had so far taken the step of opening a mission to the other.

President Klaus Iohannis signed this week several ambassador appointments, giving his seal of approval to journalist and writer Emil Hurezeanu's nomination as Ambassador of Romania to Germany, and to historian, essayist and politician Adrian Cioroianu taking over as Romania's Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, the Presidential Administration announced.

The former foreign ministers of Romania gathered on Friday, on the initiative of the incumbent head of diplomacy Bogdan Aurescu, in the first Consultative Council of the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE), to discuss the country's foreign policy priorities in its relation with the eastern neighbourhood, MAE informed AGERPRES in a release.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, on the occasion of his meeting in London with his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, underscored how important it is that the British authorities join the Romanian ones in the effort to improve the perception about Romanians living in the UK, reads a release sent to AGERPES.

Photo credit: (c) Simion MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

AGERPRES correspondent Florentina Peia, reports: Romania's ambassador to France Bogdan Mazuru says an incident involving invitations to President Klaus Iohannis's meeting with the local Romanian community was 'an unfortunate blunder.' On Tuesday, he declared he might be responsible, not guilty about a document attached to email invitations that included offensive comments about the guests.