Romania's President Klaus Iohannis received Xavier Bettel, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg at the Cotroceni Palace, on Friday, June 16. The Luxembourg prime minister is visiting Romania between June 16 and June 18.

President Iohannis told the Luxembourg PM he is "very welcome" although the country is "in a difficult situation." In his turn, Bettel pointed out that he developed a good relationship with Iohannis since 2007, when he was a mayor of Luxembourg, which held the the title of European Capital of Culture alongside the central Romanian city of Sibiu that year. At the time, Iohannis was the mayor Sibiu.

The two will visit Sibiu on June 17. They will attend events related to the 10-year celebration of the city’s holding the European Capital of Culture title.

They will also attend a ceremony where Constantin Chiriac, the general manager of the Radu Stanca Theater in Sibiu, and Charles Muller, the general manager of the Esch-sur-Alzette Municipal Theater in Luxembourg will be decorated. Chiriac is also the president of the high-profile Sibiu International Theater Festival, currently ongoing in the city.

While in Sibiu, the two will attend a performance staged in a collaboration between the Sibiu and the Esch-sur-Alzette theaters.

This is the latest high-profile meeting of the Romanian president, who will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in the coming weeks. Iohannis also met U.S. President Donald Trump at the beginning of June.

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg also met his Romanian counterpart Sorin Grindeanu. In Bucharest, the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA) granted him the Doctor Honoris Causa title.

Some 852 Luxembourg companies were registered in Romania in 2016, with a total share capital of EUR 1.3 billion, according to data from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR). They are present in industry, telecommunications, retail, construction and agriculture. The total volume of bilateral trade stood at EUR 88 million in December 2015.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo:presidency.ro)