BUCHAREST, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu stressed on Friday that his country supported the 16+1 cooperation format between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).
Melescanu made the remarks at a joint press conference with Frederica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, after a two-day informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers.
"Romania...obviously endorses the complementarity of China-CEEC cooperation format, 16+1, with the relations between the EU and the People's Republic of China," said the foreign minister.
Melescanu underlines that Romania hopes that all these activities would be "in a climate of full transparency and in accordance with EU legislation and values."
"I have to tell you that it is quite clear from all the data that the People's Republic of China remains the main economic partner of almost the entire majority of European states," he said, stressing that capitalizing on the EU-Asia connectivity strategy, recently adopted by the EU, will be another important event that Romania will have during its EU presidency.
Speaking about the discussion on China during the informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers, Melescanu said the talks resulted in the "desire to promote cooperation with China on pragmatic basis, including in view of solving some international crises, development assistance programmes and some ambitious measures to combat climate changes."
He added that in this context the foreign ministers also discussed the importance of the transatlantic relationship and the relations between the United States and China.
The European Union held an informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the member states here in Bucharest on Thursday and Friday. Eastern Partnership, Venezuela, Syria and China were among the major topics. Romania is the current EU Council Presidency.
