September 28, 2022, 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel, Grand Ballroom
Calea 13 Septembrie 90, Bucharest
Thank you to AmCham for convening us this morning.
Mr. Deputy Secretary , Mr. Undersecretary, Madame President , Esteemed Ministers, and Distinguished Guests:
On behalf of the U.S. Embassy, it is my pleasure to welcome many of you to Romania, and I am thrilled at the honor your collective presence pays to the bilateral Strategic Partnership between our two countries. I know many of you here are also participating this week in the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference which is going on right over here, in the House of Parliament. I believe this international gathering exemplifies how partner nations and Allies can work together to great ends and we are already seeing evidence of that this week, at the ITU. Together, we will be declaring new and higher standards and policies that will further strengthen our economies and their vital foundations; we all know there are few things more important to modern economies than telecommunications.
Everyone here this morning is involved in critical work, be it policy formation, regulation, governance or fostering trade and investment. The products, the systems, and expertise that we create and launch together testify to the benefits of our collaboration between the United States and Romania. It is your dedication, active participation, and ongoing efforts that ensure robust and free trade and mutual economic development… Everything that you do are doing is greatly appreciated and I have had the privilege over the last several years to visit many of you in your factories, in your facilities and see just how much is going on here, just how much trade and commerce, how much innovation, how much investment, how much development. So thank you to AmCham for really developing our bilateral relationship beyond government-to-government and really expanding it fully
American businesses continue to enjoy real success in Romania, and this is largely thanks to this government’s commitment to transparency; one which forms the basis for fair and open competition. When barriers to trade and discriminatory regulations are removed through thoughtful and well-founded policy decisions, we see more investment, and, in turn, more transparency – in other words, a virtuous cycle and we definitely see many signs of this happening in Romania today in many sectors
As you all well know, 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Romania-U.S. Strategic Partnership. A leading pillar of that Partnership is a mutual commitment to shared national security. Many specifics fall within this theme – to be honest, I am hard pressed to think of anything meaningful that does not: energy security, food security, border security, resource preservation, and the robust enforcement of intellectual property and privacy rights…all help protect our countries and their creative strength. Combined, these elements also render nations far more impervious to foreign malign influences. There has bever been a better time to demonstrate how the elements of economic security contribute to national security as there is right now in Europe.
With us here today are many AmCham members. I want to congratulate all of them on the new benchmarks and what they are achieving for themselves and for their companies and Romania. The collective growth in core-product sales, as well as in R&D, illustrates this country’s ever-increasing expertise in computer and electronic manufacturing, machinery, transportation equipment, energy, and information technology.
It is hardly surprising that the United States continues to see in Romania one of Eastern Europe’s most promising markets for U.S. trade and investment. Its economic growth remains among the European Union’s highest since 2010 and quarter-on-quarter growth continues to surpass many countries. As an important aside that bears mentioning, a leading source of American exports to Romania includes defense and concomitant equipment, again, hallmark to our strong military cooperation partnership. In the face of the brutal and illegal Russian invasion of our neighbor, the significance of this and its reassuring impact across the entire Black Sea region cannot be overstated. To an unprecedented extent, your collaboration, and our Strategic Partnership and Alliance are helping to stabilize a critical part of Europe at a critical time.
As I draw to a close, I would be remiss if I did not mention the pictorial display our Embassy’s Public Diplomacy section has provided for today’s session. They are part of our “We The People” exhibition created in honor of the 25th anniversary of our Strategic Partnership. The exhibit as a whole is travelling throughout Romania for 13 months, and it does much to capture the work we all have done to bring us to today’s unprecedented levels of success. In fact, I believe on Friday, if anyone is going to be in Timisoara, you will have a chance to see it. So if you are there, please do.
To all of you—from both Romania and the United States – thank you for being here today and thank you for all you do. I know you will find your time in Romania very well spent for those who are visiting and I hope you enjoy and benefit from the rest of this morning’s events.
Thank you.
