David Usupashvili visits Romanian Senate

Chairman of the Georgian parliament David Usupashvili paid an official visit to Romania. Usupashvili, who is accompanied by Georgian MPs from both the parliamentary majority and minority groups, held meetings with speakers of Romania’s upper and lower houses of parliament and the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

In Bucharest, the Georgian speaker discussed Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration process and importance of cooperation with partner countries.

The President of the Senate, Crin Antonescu, expressed his support to Georgia’s aspiration to integrate with the Euro-Atlantic community. He noted that Romania will try its best to help monitor conflict regions in Georgia and find peaceful solutions.

Usupashvili thanked his colleague for supporting Georgia and said that their countries have strong links. “Despite the fact that we are not connected by land, we are connected through the Black Sea, being an additional condition for better economic and business relations,” Usupashvili said.

After the meeting, parties held a joint briefing. Where Usupashvili once again spoke about how important NATO and EU integration is for Georgia. “The next step after the Vilnius Summit is the signing of the association agreement for which there are many impediments and we sincerely hope for our friends’ support. We can cooperate in many spheres – economy, business, and trade, thus enhancing relations,” Usupashvili said at the press conference.

The challenges accompanying the initialing of the association agreement and economic relations were the major topics that the Georgian speaker discussed with the president of Romania’s Chamber of Deputies, Valeriu Zgonea.

“We have many challenges on our path to the EU and your support is important for us. The association agreement gives us a feeling of security that our European friends will be by our side,” Usupashvili said at the meeting.

Zgonea offered the Speaker to organize two economic forums with the participation of Georgian and Romanian experts. The forums will serve to share the Romanian experience of EU integration with Georgia.

Romania keeps an eye on recent events in Georgia and its aspiration to the EU and NATO. The head of the Romanian Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Petru Filip, said at the meeting with Usupashvili. He congratulated the Georgian speaker on initialing the association agreement and promised support in the future.

In order to officially express its support to Georgia and the country’s ambitions to join the EU, the Romanian Senate adopted a resolution on February 10th.

The document was voiced by the Head of Romania-Georgia Friendship Group, Stefan Oprea, at the Senate session. Usupashvili, who attended the session, said that the resolution is a summarization of the positions of Romania and its indisputable support of Georgia.

“We received concrete results from this visit. We have the resolution and the agreement that the Romanian Parliament will support Georgia on its path to integration with the EU,” the Speaker of the Georgian parliament stated.

After Bucharest, Usupashvili arrived in Hungary on a two-day official visit. Before leaving Romania, the Georgian speaker met Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean.