UPDATE President Iohannis says that Gov't and Presidency collaboration in foreign policy is mandatory, not optional

AGERPRES special correspondent Florentina Peia reports: President Klaus Iohannis stated on Thursday that, in terms of foreign policy, the collaboration of the Government with the Presidency "is not optional, but mandatory." 

"In respect to the foreign policy matter, the collaboration is not optional, but mandatory, there aren't or, at least, there shouldn't be different approaches," President Iohannis stated in Sofia, where he is attending the informal meeting of the European Council and the EU-Western Balkans Summit. 

According to the head of state, Romania will be powerful only if in terms of foreign affairs it will "in a single voice." 

"This thing has been very well understood by everyone," Iohannis pointed out. 

He underscored that it's important that there are discussions for things that concern Romania, but this thing must be carried out in Romania. 

"I don't want us to go to the other extreme and not talk about things that concern us, thus, there are things that concern us and they need to be discussed, without having a talk we won't get to any conclusion and here it's very important, these discussions must be carried out in Romania with specialists, and not in front of the global audience. The approach that I criticised was her [the Prime Minister's] departure to Israel, without consulting me, without even consulting with foreign policy specialists. They started to talk about relocating the embassy. This thing is simply not to be done. It's not that it wouldn't be nice, not that it would indicate a select education, no, such approaches seriously damage Romania and, for this reason, they should not occur," the head of state argued. 

President Iohannis mentioned that he was welcomed very well at the informal meeting of the European Council on Wednesday evening. 

"I was very nicely welcomed. I am always welcomed nicely and I believe that it should be very clear: we are truly part of the EU, it is also true that we blunder sometimes, but here we are talking about an integration that we want to be increasingly more solid and I think that we are heading towards it," Iohannis stated. 

He said that the relocation of the Embassy in Israel had not been discussed at the informal meeting of the European Council on Wednesday evening. 

"This matter hasn't been discussed, it wasn't on the informal meeting agenda and there were no talks on this topic, not even in private, on the sidelines of the meeting," the head of state mentioned. 

According to the President, any other resolution that the European Council would make regarding the relocation of the embassies in Israel was not on the table. 

"This issue was not on the table and I believe that we have a pretty clear resolution. Nobody has currently signaled the need of a new statement on this topic. We all regretted that there were so many victims at the border with the Gaza Strip, but the relocation matter has not been discussed," Iohannis added. 

On the meeting agenda also included was the nuclear agreement with Iran because three European countries are signatories of this document. 

"It will continue in view of keeping the nuclear agreement," the head of state explained. 

Furthermore, representatives of the European Commission presented the approach regarding customs duties with the US. 

"We will continue the negotiation. Thus, the discussion with the US representatives will continue. A solution will be sought, but all these without being under pressure. We are partners, we want to stay partners, therefore, we want to negotiate so that all the parties be satisfied," he added.