Nigerian Foreign Minister: We want to have stronger relationship with Romania

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Geoffrey Onyeama, declared on Friday that his country wants "a stronger relationship" with Romania and the revitalization of the joint economic commission between the two countries, Agerpres reports.

We want to have a stronger relationship with Romania. Romania is an important player in global affairs and a country with which we feel we can develop very good relations and for the benefit of both parties. We already have a framework - a mixed economic commission - and we would like to revitalize it. We have not been active for a number of years. One of my reasons here is to re-establish this relationship and relaunch some initiatives. We have a very good framework for cooperation between our countries and trade is very important. Nigeria is a country where we focus perhaps too much on one sector - oil and gas. It is a very precious commodity today, but we want to diversify. For us as a Government it has been a priority and we want to diversify goods and trade, said the Nigerian Foreign Minister, after the meeting with the Romanian counterpart, Bogdan Aurescu.

Geoffrey Onyeama pointed out that there is a growing interest in the Romanian business environment for Nigeria.

It is a very welcome thing on our part, because we want to promote foreign investment in Nigeria, a very attractive place for business. We hope to attract more and more Romanian businesses. Nigeria is one-fifth of Africa, with a population of 200 million people. A very useful market and I believe that the Romanian business coming to Nigeria will not only have a Nigerian market, but also a bigger market for the entire African market. We have a young population, very skilled in technology, said the Nigerian Foreign Minister.

He stressed that Romania and Nigeria have excellent bilateral relations and appreciated the Romanian educational institutions where Nigerian students study.

We appreciate the solidarity and generosity of Romanians and the Romanian Government towards Nigerian students. We have 5,000 students in Ukraine and due to the crisis there many of them left, some of them went through Romania, so we greatly appreciate the warmth, generosity and hospitality with which you also treated the efforts made by the Romanian educational institutions to absorb some of these students so that they can continue their studies, said the Nigerian official, who also appreciated Romania's efforts in managing the flow of Ukrainian refugees .

Discussions also focused on security and climate change. In this context, the Nigerian official stated that Nigeria wants to prioritize renewable energy.

Clearly, Romania is a partner, a country with which we want to work closely together in all these areas, said Geoffrey Onyeama.

The Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister and his Nigerian counterpart have concluded a memorandum of understanding in the field of diplomatic relations.

We are working together at the consular level to facilitate person-to-person cooperation between our countries, the Nigerian official said.