Romanian-Ukrainian relations

After three months since he took office, President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday paid a visit to Ukraine.

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Bogdan Matei, 18.03.2015, 13:49

Just like his predecessor, Traian Basescu, just like the Romanian Government, Parliament and Foreign Ministry, the new head of the Romanian state was adamant in disapproving of the aggressive actions of Russia, which a year ago annexed the Crimean Peninsula in Southern Ukraine and then supported the secessionist revolt in the East of that country.

President Klaus Iohannis: “Romania stands for EU sanctions to be further imposed on the Russian Federation as long as there is no full compliance with the Minsk ceasefire or if the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate.”

During his talks with Ukrainian president Petro Porosenko in Kiev, president Iohannis confirmed that Romania also wanted the deepening of Romanian-Ukrainian relations and Ukraine’s EU accession. Actually, president Porosenko thanked president Iohannis for Romania’s support for Ukraine’s European undertaking and recalled that last year, Romania had been the first state to ratify the association and free trade agreements concluded by Ukraine with the EU.

President Porosenko told the joint press conference that Ukraine had contracts on the delivery of defensive weaponry with 11 EU member states and he wouldn’t mention any state in particular. They also agreed with several countries on the training of Ukrainian military and in Berlin and in Kiev with president Iohannis, they agreed that Ukrainian wounded soldiers undergo treatment in Germany and Romania.

It will not be the first time when the victims of violence in Ukraine are going to be taken to Romanian hospitals. In early 2014, also for humanitarian reasons, people injured in the crackdown of pro-Western protesters in Kiev by the former pro-Russian regime were admitted to hospitals in Bucharest. Porosenko went on to say that the creation of a direct Kiev-Bucharest airline was being looked into and that issues had been addressed such as cross border traffic and the visa waiver for Ukrainians traveling to Europe.

They are all confidence-building initiatives. Romanian-Ukrainian relations have not been flawless over time, to mention the Romanian-Ukrainian dispute over the delimitation of the Black Sea continental shelf, which was settled by the International Court of Justice in favour of Romania, the rights of nearly half a million ethnic Romanians living in Western Ukraine, the idea of the former administrations in Kiev to build a man-made canal in the Danube Delta, with serious consequences on the environment and the retrieval of the investment made by Romania in the former Soviet aggregate works in Kirvoi Rog during the communist regime. Ukraine’s pro-Western stance and the adoption of European values in Kiev would benefit Romania too.