RIYADH, 21 January 2003 — The Romanian Foreign Minister, Mircea Geoana, has said that the Kingdom and Romania have agreed to establish a joint business council to promote trade and investment. He made the statement following talks with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Foreign Minister Prince Saud on Saturday night.
Geoana delivered a message from Romanian President Ion Iliescu to King Fahd and another message from Prime Minister Adrian Nastase to Crown Prince Abdullah.
The Romanian foreign minister also held talks with Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf, GCC Secretary-General Abdulrahman Al-Atiya, members of the Shoura Council and other senior Saudi officials and businessmen.
Geoana said his country supported diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in Iraq. “We are working to sign a memorandum of understanding between Romania and the GCC during the GCC secretary-general’s visit to Bucharest next month,” he said.
Referring to his talks with Prince Saud, Geoana said he discussed bilateral relations. The Kingdom has opened an embassy in Bucharest to which an ambassador will shortly be appointed.
The two countries are working on three bilateral agreements to be endorsed next year — one on cooperation in youth welfare, another on investment protection and the third on combating organized crime and drug trafficking.
Geoana said that the two sides had also identified joint projects in the oil and gas sectors as well as the engineering, health and power sectors.
