JOINT STATEMENT

of the Prime Ministers of Ukraine and Romania on the results of the first meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Romania

On October 18, 2023, the first joint meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Romania took place in Kyiv under the co-chairmanship of Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

Upon the results of the joint meeting the Prime Ministers:

welcome the decision of the Presidents of Ukraine and Romania of October 10, 2023 to build a Strategic Partnership between the two countries and are ready to bring a comprehensive contribution towards achieving this important goal;

confirm their readiness to continue active cooperation, for as long as needed, with the aim of supporting Ukraine in the war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation and of restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders, including its territorial waters;

emphasize the importance of further strengthening the multi-dimensional assistance to Ukraine. Recall the valuable support provided by the Government of Romania and Romanian citizens since the beginning of the full-scale armed invasion of the Russian Federation in February 2022;

condemn the systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Armed and Auxiliary Forces and private military companies (PMCs) in Ukraine, including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population and critical and civilian infrastructure of Ukraine, the forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children, from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia;

support the initiative to create a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression committed against Ukraine;

condemn Russia's organization of illegal so-called "elections" in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as well as parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine;

call upon the international community to continue and strengthen sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation, as well as to ensure the political isolation of the aggressor country in international organizations;

express full support to the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and emphasize the importance of its implementation as a basis for restoring a comprehensive, just and lasting peace. Underscore the importance of Romania's participation in the work aimed at implementing the "Radiation and nuclear security" and "Food security" points of the Peace Formula;

confirm the joint intention to use all available international formats to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the International Crimea Platform;

note the readiness to continue and deepen cooperation on issues of strengthening the security of the Black Sea region, given the challenges of the Russian armed aggression and its consequences, as well as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. In this context, they welcomed the First Black Sea Security Conference of the International Crimea Platform, jointly organised by Ukraine and Romania in Bucharest in April 2023;

agree with the importance of joint efforts in ensuring global food security, increasing transit capacities for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, by making full use of EU Solidarity Lanes;

highly appreciate the constant efforts of Romania in ensuring and developing options for the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania;

emphasize mutual interest in improving border infrastructure by increasing capacity of existing border crossing points (BCPs) and opening of new BCPs on the Ukrainian-Romanian state border;

agree on the importance of further cooperating on improving border management activities at the checkpoints across the Ukrainian-Romanian state border, including by implementing a pilot project on joint (coordinated) border and customs control at the checkpoints across the common state border, according to the applicable national legislation;

note the urgent need to restore and reconstruct the infrastructure damaged as a result of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, including within the framework of the "Fast Recovery Plan", the Fund for the Recovery of Ukraine, the World Bank's Target Fund for Support, Reconstruction and Reform of Ukraine (URTF), as well as through the "Rebuild Ukraine" platform. The parties agreed on the importance of Romania’s engagement in the reconstruction of Ukraine and agreed to intensify the bilateral dialogue to this end, including with a view to Romania’s participation to projects in regions of Ukraine that suffered destruction as a result of the criminal actions of the Russian occupation forces;

emphasize the opportunities for enhancing connectivity, in the areas of energy, transportation, and digitalization, through Ukraine’s status as associated participating state to the Three Seas Initiative (3SI), as underscored at the 3SI Summit and Business Forum hosted in Bucharest, on 6-7 September 2023;

agree on the importance of further development of the platform of private entrepreneurs "Rebuilding Ukraine" in Romania and note the joint patronage on the 3rd Forum of this initiative, which will take place on October 18-20, 2023 in Bucharest;

welcome the upcoming conference titled "The Reconstruction of Ukraine and the Strategic Role of Romania" that will take place on 13-14 December in Sinaia, Romania, under the patronage of the Government of Romania;

agree on the importance of holding a meeting of the Ukrainian-Romanian Joint Commission on economic, industrial, scientific and technical cooperation in the near future;

call for further strengthening of bilateral cooperation and coordination of activities in the energy sector, in particular the development of energy interconnectivity between Romania and Ukraine; following the successful synchronization of the grids of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova with the European Continental Grid ENTSO-E, they underline the importance of the trilateral coordination and cooperation, building on the outcomes of the first trilateral meeting of the ministers of energy (Odessa, 15 September 2022);

note the importance of developing cooperation in the field of healthcare, pharmaceutics, international partnership between healthcare institutions with the aim of improving the system of quality and availability of medical services, promoting the improvement of the qualifications of medical personnel and sharing experience;

express their support for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO membership, and confirm their readiness to continue cooperation with the EU and NATO member countries for this purpose;

recall the expectation that the European Council will adopt a decision on the start of EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova by the end of 2023;

confirm readiness for effective cooperation aimed at ensuring the rights of persons belonging to the Ukrainian national minority in Romania and persons belonging to the Romanian national minority in Ukraine, taking into account relevant international obligations and standards, including in the field of education; they agree on the importance of developing the bilateral legal framework in this respect, based on the principle of equivalent level of protection of the rights of persons belonging to the Romanian minority in Ukraine and the persons belonging to the Ukrainian minority in Romania;

take note that the state language of the Republic of Moldova is the Romanian language; building on the productive discussions of Presidents of Romania and Ukraine (Bucharest, 10 October 2023), the Romanian side welcome the decision adopted today by the Government of Ukraine to resolve without delay the issue of artificial differences between Romanian and “Moldovan” languages by implementing due practical measures, taking into account the relevant legal aspects;

note the importance of work related to organization of the search for the relics of St. Theodora in Ukraine and the graves of Hetmans Pylyp Orlyk and Ivan Mazepa in Romania;

agreed to hold the next joint meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Romania in 2024 in Bucharest.

Prime-minister of Ukraine DENYS SHMYHAL

Prime-minister of Romania MARCEL CIOLACU