The Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and the Prime Minister of Romania Florin Cîțu discussed the strengthening of bilateral relations during a telephone conversation on February 4.

Denys Shmyhal congratulated Florin Cîțu on his appointment as Prime Minister and assured that the Government of Ukraine stands ready to work closely with the Government of Romania in all areas of common interest.

In particular, the parties tackled economic cooperation and noted the importance of activities in this context of the Ukrainian-Romanian Joint Commission on Economic, Industrial, Scientific and Technical Cooperation.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine stressed that both countries have considerable potential for the development of ties in the field of energy. According to him, one of the priorities of the Ukrainian energy sector is full technical synchronization with the energy system of the European Union.

"Ukraine and Romania have mutual interests in the energy sector - diversification of gas and electricity sources, in the development of transport corridors and transit potential. We express readiness to discuss the prospects of development in these directions in the near future at the expert level between the line ministries and interested energy companies," emphasized Denys Shmyhal.

In addition, the Prime Minister of Ukraine noted that it would be expedient to intensify measures within the framework of cross-border cooperation, in particular, to enhance collaboration between Ukrainian and Romanian border agencies.

Denys Shmyhal also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a real challenge for the whole world: "But I believe despite the hardships against the background of the fight against the pandemic, we will continue to actively develop bilateral cooperation."

The Prime Minister of Ukraine thanked Romania for the readiness it had expressed to support Ukraine in joining the European Common Aviation Area.

Apart from that, Denys Shmyhal welcomed a decision of Romania to uphold the need to develop a European Commission mechanism for the Eastern Partnership countries to have access to COVID-19 vaccine.

For his part, Florin Cîțu expressed support for Ukraine's European integration aspirations, as well as Romania's interest in developing infrastructure projects together with Ukraine.