Captură video – https://www.mae.ro/node/57898

Good afternoon! 

It is a very important extraordinary Council today, which is dedicated to the assessment of the impact of the illegal aggression by Russia against Ukraine and the other acts which are in flagrant and gross violation of International Law, like the recognition of the so-called “republics” in East Ukraine.

We will discuss today what is the response of the European Union towards Russia. It should be a very swift, a very powerful, a very meaningful response.

I think the most important response that we will have is the adoption of a package of sanctions which is robust, which is comprehensive, and which has massive and severe consequences, as it was decided by the European Council yesterday.

So, what we are doing today, hopefully, if all procedures will be accomplished in due time, will be to formally adopt what our leaders decided yesterday, which is this package against Russia.

Today, I will also mention the responsibility of Belarus and I will draw attention to the fact that the aggression against Ukraine is also supported largely by Belarus. We need to respond also to Belarus and, as decided also by the European Council yesterday, we have to start preparing, as quickly as possible, a package of sanctions – individual and economic sanctions against Belarus.

Also, very important today is to discuss how to further support Ukraine, for instance, in terms of humanitarian assistance, because this is very much needed.

Romania has already responded through the European Civil Protection Mechanism with medical supplies, medicines and other material. 

At the same time, Romania, being a border country, a direct neighbor to Ukraine, will assist each and every EU member state in the evacuation of its citizens, if there is a need for that.

At the same time, I think the EU should be very much prepared to deal with the wave of refugees, if this is coming, this is also a very important matter that should be discussed. If we speak about refugees, we should also support the Republic of Moldova, because Republic of Moldova already has a large number of refugees on its territory.

I have discussed yesterday with my counterpart, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Moldova, and he asked me to convey to the European Union member states this request of assistance.

We also need to take into account the possibility that the Republic of Moldova face another gas crisis, as it was the case in October. So the resilience of our Eastern partners – the Republic of Moldova, Georgia – is of great importance.

Thank you so much!

Sursa: Declarațiile ministrului afacerilor externe Bogdan Aurescu înaintea reuniunii extraordinare CAE