The National Day of Romania was celebrated for the first time on Monday at the Museum of the Modern Arts of the University of Mostar.
At the reception, the good relations between the two countries were highlighted, and their improvement in the future was also announced.
The official reception was organized by the Ambassador of Romania to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Anton Păcureţu, who expressed his satisfaction that this event was held for the first time in Mostar.
“I see that Mostar is attracting more and more Romanians, tourists, and those who would like to invest here. I would especially like to highlight the mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordić, who worked hard to improve this cooperation. There is a lot of potential for cooperation, and Romanian companies are very interested in the IT sector,” said Ambassador Păcureţu.
He added that the Romanian side is very attracted by student exchange, especially through the Erasmus program, as well as Mostar Airport where, as he said, they are thinking of opening a direct line between Mostar and Romania.
He pointed out that relations between Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have recently improved.
“There has been a great boom in bilateral relations in the last year, especially in terms of increased interest in expanding our cooperation in political and economic relations. Romania is now one of the top ten EU members in terms of trade with BiH, which amounts to around 250 million euros per year, and we want to improve that in the future,” said the Romanian ambassador to BiH.
At the end, Ambassador Păcureţu spoke about Euro-Atlantic integration and the progress that Romania experienced after joining the EU and NATO.
“When we talk about the EU and your future membership, because I’m sure it will happen one day, I can only give our example. EU membership brought us many benefits, our GDP grew from 30 to 400 billion in less than twenty years, it was a spectacular jump. The European Union is about prosperity, while NATO is about security. I think that both memberships have helped Romania to develop, and that’s why I always encourage the leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to do everything in their power to speed up the Euro-Atlantic processes,” said the Romanian ambassador.
The reception was organized in cooperation with the Honorary Consul of Romania, Davorin Vidačković,
“Mostar is a city with a rich culture and for the third year there is an honorary consulate of the Republic of Romania. As an honorary consul, I try to give it some importance, especially through investments that can help the city. A year ago, we invested significant funds through the Romanian Aid and Reconstruction Agency (ROAID) and other agencies and renovated two parks within the City of Mostar, and this is a nice gesture from the Romanian side. I hope that it is not the last project, but just the beginning of a long-term cooperation, where I see many projects in which we can help a lot. That is the main goal of our consulate,” Vidačković concluded.
