Cooperation in education, research, innovation, discussed by ForMin Melescanu with Singapore counterpart Maliki Bin Osman

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Teodor Melescanu, received on Wednesday the state Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence of the Republic of Singapore, Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, who is on an official visit in Romania, a special attention of the talks being granted to extending cooperation in the education, research and innovation sector. 

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), the Romanian side highlighted the major interest of Bucharest authorities to boosting relations between Romania and Singapore, emphasizing that the presence of the Singapore Minister in our country reflects the common desire of promoting this objective. 

The head of the Romanian diplomacy stressed the relevance of consolidating bilateral political dialogue at a high level, as a means of supporting the development of collaboration in all fields of common interest. Also, Teodor Melescanu pointed out the importance Romania gives to extending the economic size of Singapore-Romania ties, according to the potential and solid economic dynamics of the two states, supported by the perspective of ratifying partnership accords and cooperation, free trade and investments between the EU and Singapore. 

Also, the common interest of valorizing diverse opportunities of collaboration in the field of commerce, investments, transport, banking-financial sector, communication and information technology was pointed out. A special attention was given to extending cooperation in the education, research and innovation sector, through stimulating cooperation between universities in the interest of Singapore citizens to study in Romania and involving researchers from Singapore in specific projects with Romanian partners, MAE informs. 

The agenda of discussions also included the cooperation between Romania and Singapore within the international organizations, as well as topical elements concerning regional and global issues of shared interest. Also, there were aspects that were tackled of EU-Singapore and EU-ASEAN relations, including in the context of Singapore holding the ASEAN presidency in 2018 and in the perspective of Romania taking over the presidency of the EU Council, on the first semester of 2019.