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The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, Yair Lapid, paid an official visit to Romania
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, Yair Lapid, conveyed on Sunday to the Ukrainian refugees from The Jewish Agency for Israel in Bucharest that they have a home waiting for them, and when they land at the Airport Ben-Gurion from Tel Aviv they will like they arrived home.
On Sunday, Minister Yair Lapid paid an official visit to Romania, context in which he met in Bucharest with Ukrainian refugees from The Jewish Agency for Israel.
"You have an advantage that no one else has: in addition to the house you left behind, you have another home waiting for you. That's why the State of Israel was established. For such moments, to make sure every Jew in the world has a place to come to. You don't feel it yet, but you and I are the sons and daughters of the same country. When you land at Ben-Gurion Airport, you will feel something special and you will feel like you made it home," said Yair Lapid, as quoted in a post on the Facebook page of the Embassy of Israel in Romania.
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid on Sunday also visited the Siret border crossing point, and discussed with the Romanian authorities about the situation at the border.
"He discussed with the Romanian authorities the situation on the border and personally thanked those who have been working with the employees of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Siret since the beginning of the conflict to help Ukrainian refugees. Minister Lapid visited the workstation of the Embassy and the tents of the authorities and of the volunteers who are working day and night to help those who were forced to leave their country," reads a post on the Facebook page of the Israeli Embassy in Romania.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu announced on Sunday after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, that more than 3,000 Israeli citizens and more than 1,200 Ukrainian citizens of Jewish origin have been supported to enter the territory of our country and then be evacuated to Israel.
"We discussed joint efforts to support the evacuation of people fleeing war, including citizens of the state of Israel. Over 430,000 Ukrainian citizens entered our country through Romania's border crossing points with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, to whom are added a very large number of citizens of other states who have been evacuated, and this number is certainly rising. I assured my colleague of Romania's commitment to providing full support for the further evacuation of Israeli or citizens of Jewish origin from Ukraine. So far, more than 3,000 Israeli citizens, over 1,200 Ukrainian citizens of Jewish origin have been supported by Romania to enter our country and then to be evacuated, with more than 12 flights to Israel, including about 100 orphans who were brought from Ukraine," the Romanian Foreign minister said.
Another topic addressed by the two foreign ministers concerns the preparation of the third joint Romanian-Israeli government meeting (G2G), scheduled for this year.
"Bilaterally, we have discussed the preparation of the next joint government meeting, the third session of the joint government meeting, this year. We discussed the issues of interest within this framework, of the future joint government meeting, because we want to boost our sectoral cooperation in several areas that are extremely important. We agreed that in preparation for the joint government meeting we should organize another meeting of the joint working group on economic issues, which is under the coordination of the two ministries of foreign affairs. We are talking about the economy - in 2021, our total trade will reach almost 885 million US dollars, an increase of almost 240 million dollars compared to 2020 and 2019. We must, therefore, continue our efforts in this regard," explained Aurescu.
He showed there was also increased potential in several areas, including agriculture, water management, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
"We have discussed this issue with Mr. Minister, increasing resilience, research, innovation, development, technology transfer, because it is extremely relevant for the two states to strengthen their prosperity and, at the same time, their ability to meet the challenges of hybrid nature," added Bogdan Aurescu.
The Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister reiterates Romania's firm commitment to fighting anti-Semitism, xenophobia, with our country adopting, last year, a first National Strategy to combat anti-Semitism, to promote memory policies, to combat xenophobia.
At the end of the conference, Bogdan Aurescu thanked Yair Lapid for the support that the state of Israel provided to Romania during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, Yair Lapid paid an official visit to Romania, having meetings with Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, but also with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu. In addition to visiting the Capital, he also traveled to the north-east to meet with refugees entering the country at Siret Customs.