On 16 March 2019, upon official invitation of Mr. Ciopraga, TRACECA Secretary General, H.E. Dr. Emil Constantinescu, the former President of Romania paid a courtesy visit to the TRACECA Headquarters

It should be noted that H.E. Dr. Emil Constantinescu is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the third President of Romania within 1996 to 2000. Dr. Constantinescu is also a university professor, scientist, and writer who was previously the President of Bucharest University and Chairman of the National Council of Romanian Universities’ Rectors, President of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization. 

H.E. Dr. Constantinescu expressed his sincere appreciation to Mr. Ciopraga for the opportunity to visit the TRACECA Headquarter after all these years once again. In his turn, Mr. Ciopraga stressed his delight to see H.E. Dr. Constantinescu in TRACECA Headquarter, as he is one of the founders and signatories of the Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the “Europe- the Caucasus- Asia” corridor, in September 1998, at Baku High-Level International Conference “The Ancient Silk Road Revival”. 

This time, His Excellency Dr. Constantinescu made an official visit to the TRACECA Headquarter within his participation at the VII Global Baku Forum, organized by Nizami Ganjavi International Center and World Academy Art of Science under the patronage of H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held on March 14-17, 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

This VII Global Baku Forum gathered about 450 people from more than 70 countries on the topic of the “New foreign policy of the world” with participation of current and former heads of state and government, famous statesmen, politicians, and authoritative public figures. During the forum, panel meetings consisted from various themes such as, “The role of big forces in changing global politics”, “Challenges of sustainable development”, “Middle Eastern cooperation for security”, “The role of science and culture in making modern decisions” and other topics. One of the main meetings of the forum was devoted to the role of young leaders in global politics.

During the visit to the office of TRACECA, Mr. Ciopraga and H.E. Dr. Constantinescu had exchange of opinions on the current structure of TRACECA and its plans and projects. 

At the moment, the PS IGC TRACECA has signed 10 Memorandum of Understandings. Among the latest, TRACECA has signed MoU with CAREC Institute for developing infrastructure, and solving transport related problems of the member countries as well as with Silk Road Chamber of International Commerce to collaborate with the China’s One Belt One Road initiative (BRI).  

At the same time, H.E. Dr. Constantinescu and Mr. Ciopraga discussed the status of cooperation between TRACECA and United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN OHRLLS), located in New York. 

The discussion also touched various routes and corridors that has been created recently along the whole length of the TRACECA corridor. New bridges, ports and other transport infrastructures are being constructed, accompanied by simultaneous rehabilitation of the existing roads and railways, as well as bridges and ports. He stressed that Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA since its establishment has gained a lot of experience in the transport field.

Mr. Ciopraga noted that the contribution of Romania as an inalienable part of the international transport corridor “Europe-the Caucasus- Asia” TRACECA to the development of the transport dialogue and connectivity, as well as the international cooperation in this region is of great importance.

After bilateral meeting and discussion, H.E. Dr. Constantinescu presented the Letter of Gratitude to Mr. Ciopraga as evidence of his permanent support to TRACECA activity.In its turn, Mr. Ciopraga took the opportunity and introduced the personnel of the PS IGC TRACECA to H.E. Dr. Constantinescu.

At the end of the visit, Mr. Ciopraga expressed his gratitude to Dr. Constantinescu for his visit and hope for the further cooperation among all TRACECA member-countries, including Romania.