Romanian-French strategic partnership boosted by French President visit

Romania and France have decided to boost their bilateral strategic partnership at various levels.

Roxana Vasile, 14.09.2016, 13:32

Tuesday’s state visit to Romania by
French President François Hollande covered the whole range of issues on the bilateral
and European agenda: tight political and economic relations, cooperation in the field of new technologies and
culture, as well as the shared concern over the future of Europe.

Under the Strategic Partnership
between the two countries, Presidents Klaus Iohannis and François Hollande
agreed to extend the already intense cooperation existing at the level of
Foreign and Defence Ministries. At an economic level, François Hollande
inaugurated, in the presence of Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, an
Airbus helicopter factory in Ghimbav, not far from the central Romanian city of
Brasov. The opening of this factory will take the already traditional
Romanian-French relation in the aeronautical field to a whole new level,
according to President Hollande. He said the Super Puma H215 helicopter to be produced in Ghimbav would make
Romania the supplier of an important component of the concept of common
European defence.

The Romanian Prime Minister Dacian
Ciolos underlined that his government was looking into the possibility of
purchasing intervention and military helicopters produced by this factory:

It’s an important investment for
Brasov and for the region, amounting to 50 million euros and creating 350 jobs
on top of the existing 160 jobs in the field of helicopter repair works. Beyond
the scope of the investment as such, this puts Romania on the world map of
helicopter producers with a new product.

When the French and the Romanians
start building lasers, they are the best in the world, said French President
François Hollande, who also travelled to Magurele, near Bucharest, together
with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis, to visit the National Institute of Research and Development in Physics
and Nuclear Engineering which will host the most powerful laser in the world.

The Romanian President, who
attended a Romanian-French business forum alongside Francois Hollande, used the
opportunity to reiterate that French investors can have confidence in the
Romanian economy:

France is one of the top investors
in Romania, with direct investment exceeding 7 billion euros. The fact that
French companies make investments in and transfer technology to our economy
shows that, to French investors, Romania offers guarantees of stability and is
a source of prosperity.

At a European level, Bucharest and
Paris will continue to work together in the interest of the European Union.
President Klaus Iohannis said that when it comes to security, Romania backs the
idea of common European defence, adding that a EU army would neither duplicate
the role of NATO, nor weaken it. With France opposing Romania’s Schengen entry
for years, President François Hollande said a discussion should be held on
Romania’s possible contribution to the security of this free movement area.