Romanian foreign minister due in Jordan today 

AMMAN — Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu will pay a visit to Jordan on Sunday at the invitation of his counterpart Ayman Safadi, according to a Romanian embassy statement.

The agenda of the visit includes consultations with the Safadi, as well as meetings with high-ranking Jordanian officials.

The visit is organised as a follow-up to the bilateral contacts at the level of minister of foreign affairs throughout 2020, as Safadi was one of the special guests to the 2020 edition of the Annual Reunion of the Romanian Diplomacy, held for the first time in a virtual format, the statement said.

The talks with Jordanian officials will be aimed at deepening and diversifying bilateral relations, through approaching new fields of cooperation, characterised by mutual interest and accelerated growth potential, such as agriculture, constructions and the IT sector. Aurescu will express Romania’s interest in stimulating bilateral cooperation on all dimensions, extending sectoral cooperation and consolidating the upward trend of bilateral trade of recent years, including by boosting and operationalising institutional cooperation formats on economic matters.

He will underline the importance of pursuing the close cooperation in the field of education, taking into account that Jordan has a substantial community of graduates of Romanian educational institutions, many of whom are currently holding leadership positions in the Jordanian public administration system, the statement said.

In the context of meetings with Jordanian officials, the head of the Romanian diplomacy will also approach regional issues, especially the developments within the framework of the Middle East Peace Process, the perspectives of crisis settlement in Syria, Libya and Yemen, as well as other topics with relevance for the region’s socioeconomic development.

At the same time, the officials will exchange views on the need to revive multilateralism, in the light of the lessons learned in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on the good collaboration between Romania and Jordan within international organisations.

Aurescu will also pay special attention to discussing the relations between the EU and Jordan and will underline Romania’s constructive role to this end, especially considering the potential of building on the opportunities yielded by the recent Joint Communication of the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on “A new Agenda for the Mediterranean”.

The visit’s agenda will also include a meeting with the heads of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Director of UNRWA in Jordan. As part of these talks, aspects related to the priority actions of the organisation for supporting Palestinian refugees will be approached, as well as the manner in which Romania, together with other EU member states and like-minded partners from across the world, can contribute to overcoming the organisation’s difficulties resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, concluded the statement.