ROMANIAN PRESIDENT RETURNS FROM ARMENIA

Rompres news agency, Bucharest,
5 Oct 2006

Bucharest, 5 October: President Traian Basescu arrived back home on
Thursday [5 October] from a two-day official visit to Yerevan paid
at the invitation of Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan.

Basescu told reporters at Bucharest’s Henri Coanda International
Airport that the visit had been part of several such visits paid
to the Black Sea states, being aimed at strengthening the bilateral
relations with the Black Sea countries with a view to establishing
a security space conducive to the area’s development.

The talks held in Yerevan had focused on the need to implement the
project on setting up the Black Sea Euro-region, the president said;
the visit was an opportunity to adjust the bilateral Romanian-Armenian
agreements to Romania’s new status of a European Union member,
he added.

During talks with the Armenian president, Basescu said Romanian
backs unreservedly Armenia’s moves to get closer to the European and
Euro-Atlantic structures.

The two leaders also tackled the trade between Romania and Armenia
and discussed a range of projects that might be achieved by the
two countries such as Armenia using the Romanian Black Sea port
of Constanta, the opening of a direct airline between Yerevan and
Bucharest and the establishment of joint chambers of commerce.

Basescu also had talks with the Armenian premier and met the students
and professors of the Yerevan State University, to whom he spoke
about Romania’s transition from communism to capitalism, about the
costs paid by the Romanians on this road and the implications of
Romania’s EU membership, which – he said – is an as long road as the
one of transition.

The Romanian leader was awarded the Doctor Honouris Causa honorary
title by the Yerevan State University and the university’s honorary
diploma and gold medal.

Basescu laid a wreath at the Memorial to the Victims of the Genocide
in Armenia and planted a tree to the memory of nearly 1.5 million
Armenians killed in 1915.