Ukraine and Romania will activate their bilateral dialogue, President Viktor Yushchenko told reporters in Bucharest on Wednesday, President’s press office reports.
“There have been two purposes of my visit: to detect and then almost fully resolve the problems which we have inherited from the past and which have impeded our common advance,” he said.
Speaking about the construction of a navigable canal between the Danube and the Black Sea, Yushchenko said: “My goal is to help Romania and Ukraine to formulate common policy in the unique basin of the Danube delta. This, I am convinced, will take few years of negotiations which would make two sides closer and would help find solutions to their economic needs and, in the European context, regarding the prospects of using this territory.”
“We have discussed all the problematic issues and our discussions have been very correct, very friendly,” he said, expressing confidence “Ukraine and Romania have taken the second breath today to settle their difficult and mostly inherited problems.”
Yushchenko said he had signed a protocol with his Romanian counterpart, Traian Basescu, yesterday to develop humanitarian, economic and social ties between the two countries. He said Romania’s president, prime minister and senate speaker would visit Ukraine in 2008 to discuss space and aviation cooperation.
The president described Romania as Ukraine’s “loyal and sincere friend” in its bid to join the European Union and NATO.
“The visit has been very busy and we have discussed almost all issue regarding our bilateral cooperation in a friendly and open atmosphere. I would call this visit exceptionally successful.”
