UAE-Romania Joint Committee holds its first meeting in Bucharest.

The UAE-Romania Joint Committee today held its first ministerial meeting in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State, and by Teodor Melescanu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.

The meeting featured the presence of several high officials from the Government of Romania including Danut Andrusca, Romanian Minister of Economy, George Vladimir Ivascu, Minister of Culture and National Identity, Monica Gheorghita, State Secretary for Bilateral and Global Affairs, Sorina Pintea, Minister of Health, and Natalia-Elena Intotero, Minister for Romanians Abroad.

The Emirati delegation included a number of officials representing various federal and local government, semi-governmental organisations and private companies.

Dr. Al Jaber conveyed the greetings of the UAE leadership and government to the Romanian leadership and government, emphasising the UAE's keenness to boost bilateral ties with Romania through close coordination between the committee members to achieve positive outcomes.

The Minister also conveyed the greetings of H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, to Minister Melescanu, affirming that His Highness' directives focus on enhancing efforts to promote bilateral relations between the UAE and Romania across all sectors.

He noted that the joint committee is a key platform to discuss opportunities and areas of cooperation between the public and private sectors in both countries, and reach the proposals and solutions necessary to enhance mutual relations.

Dr. Al Jaber stressed the need to exert more efforts by both parties to take advantage of the opportunities to enhance bilateral trade levels. He called on the Romanian side to benefit from the UAE's expertise to produce, export and re-export Romanian products. The UAE is considered a strategic and leading international and regional gateway to regional markets with a total population of two billion inhabitants.

He also lauded the development of cultural and social ties between the two countries and the continuous growth of bilateral touristic and cultural relations, reflected through the visit of the 25,000 Romanian visitors to the UAE in 2017.

Melescanu, in turn, welcomed Dr. Sultan Al Jaber and his accompanying delegation, reaffirming the importance of the visit in opening up new horizons and areas of strategic cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the business, trade, investment, and social and cultural sectors.

The two sides signed a number of Memoranda of Understanding, MoUs, namely a memorandum founding the UAE-Romania Joint Committee, and a memorandum of cooperation and exchange of media information between the Emirates News Agency, WAM, and the Romania News Agency.

An MoU for agricultural cooperation, and another for cooperation in the sports sector, were also signed along with a MoU to enhance bilateral investments and cultural cooperation. The parties also signed the minutes of the first meeting of the UAE-Romania Joint Committee.

The meeting was followed by the UAE-Romania Business Forum held under the chairmanship of Dr. Sultan Al Jaber and Paula Pirvanescu, Romanian Secretary of State for Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, in the presence of a large number of public and private sector representatives from the UAE and Romania.

The forum contributed to the establishment of many business and trade partnerships and paved the way for further investments and trade relations between the two friendly countries.

The UAE-based Al Dahra Agriculture carried out an investment of about US$500 million in the Black Sea, thus contributing to the UAE's vision to ensure food security and promote the country’s foreign investments.

Diplomatic relations between the UAE and Romania were formally established in 1989. Romania opened its embassy in Abu Dhabi in 1991 and the UAE Embassy opened its doors in Bucharest in 2004. Romania established a trade office in Dubai in 1974. The volume of non-oil trade between the two countries for 2016 is about US$573.8 million compared to US$519.1 million in 2015, marking a year-on-year rise of 10.5 percent.

​