published in issue 4058 page 2 at 2007-11-08

President Traian Basescu kicked off yesterday a two-day visit to the Kingdom of Norway, which includes a meeting with King Harald V, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the President of Parliament, Thorbjorn Jagland.

Basescu is also scheduled to hold a conference at the Nobel Institute on energy and the Black Sea region. In the same context, a volume of diplomatic documents referring to bilateral ties will be launched, marking the celebration of the 90th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, a press release from the President’s office said. Basescu’s visit also includes a meeting with the Romanian community in Norway.

During a joint press statement with PM Stoltenberg yesterday, Basescu announced that Norway will grant Romania approximately EUR 100 M for various projects that are to be carried out by May 1, 2009.

The money will be used to increase industrial production sustainability (IT and ship construction), in the health care system to build new incubators for new-born babies, but also to increase energy efficiency and to reduce polluting gas emissions, Basescu said.

The President added that as regards the construction of new incubators, he will suggest that a large part of the funds be allocated to the Covasna hospital.

Basescu added that the Oslo government will not only place the amount at Romania’s disposal, but will also offer technical consultancy, through the company Inovation Norway. The President also insisted that coherent projects need to be developed in order to spend the EUR 100 M by May 1, 2009.

Besides an economic cooperation accord, another document signed by the two parties yesterday refers to the social protection of Romanian sailors. Basescu underlined that this accord offers all necessary conditions so that Romanian sailors can be hired on Norwegian ships. There are currently about 500 Romanian personnel on Norwegian ships.

The accord is more than welcome, Basescu said, underlining that in Romania there are two higher education units training personnel for the commercial navy.

“The visit to Norway is not only an occasion to run an analysis of bilateral relations, but it’s also my personal satisfaction, to come back to Oslo, where I used to study some time ago, where the first developments in the shipping industry appeared between Romanian and Norwegian ships,” said Basescu.

He added that both countries have very similar approaches as regards issues of great importance for NATO and for regional security.

In his turn, the Norwegian PM underlined the “excellent” relations between Romania and Norway and the two countries’ collaboration within NATO and in the European economic area. Stoltenberg said his talks with Basescu focused on problems related to NATO enlargement, the situation in Afghanistan, the Western Balkans and the Serbian separatist province Kosovo.

by Alecs Iancu

Source Nine O’Clock newspaper