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Judicial treaties bolster Romanian-Malaysian ties

PUTRAJAYA: Romania hopes to bolster stronger diplomatic ties with Malaysia with the cementing of two significant judicial bilateral treaties, recently.

They concern 'extradition' and 'mutual assistance on criminal matters' that make a big plus-factor since Malaysia and Romania established diplomatic ties in 1969.

Romanian ambassador Nineta Bărbulescu told the New Straits Times that the bilateral treaties augured well for both nations, and had great three-fold significance.

"On the foreign policy perspective, it is refreshing and encouraging to notice that our two geographically-distant countries are able to express their respective political wills to enlarge the bilateral legal framework, despite the Covid-19 pandemic circumstances.

"It is the healthiest, most robust sign of the substantive willingness to engage more for mutual goals and benefits, and to add value to our bilateral dynamic relationship," she said.

Bărbulescu added that experts had begun negotiations for both treaties since 2016 in Kuala Lumpur and Bucharest in 2018.

"There were general elections both in Romania and in Malaysia since these bilateral negotiations started and several governmental teams acceded to power in both countries.

Yet the political wills to go on with the negotiations were maintained.

"However, since March 2020 the whole process of finalising the legal procedures were made more difficult by the Covid-19 pandemic," she said, referring to the signing of the two treaties in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 6, 2021.

The treaties, she added, fostered greater trans-regional cooperation and anchored better the countries participations within the United Nations, too.

Nineta stressed that enlarging a bilateral legal framework between an eastern Europe country and that of one in South-East Asia provided a very specific added-value to the new geo-political, comprehensive and inclusive concept of the Indo-Pacific region.

"These two new bilateral treaties are contributions to multilateralism and cooperation.

"They strengthen the future resilience of our respective countries by more effective cooperation in the suppression of crime.

"These treaties might also serve as an inspiration and motivation for our regional neighbours to broaden their legal avenues with countries from afar," Nineta said.

As per the legal perspective, she said the treaties became part of the public international law and part of their foreign policy commitment.

"These treaties are improving the effectiveness of the law enforcement authorities in the investigation and prosecution of crime and the tracing, restraint and forfeiture of the proceeds and instrumentalities of crime through cooperation and mutual assistance in criminal matters," she said.

Nineta explained that the treaties were a genuine necessity to better understand each other, and respect their civilisational similarities and cultural differences.

"To begin a journey for a better mutual knowledge and profound understanding, it is so important to put more seeds and start more projects between Romania and Malaysia," Nineta said.

As Romania became part of the EU family since 2007, she was honored and truly delighted to be part of the current important political momentum for many more contacts and substantially more articulated cooperation between the Union and Asean countries.

She stressed in particular the ties between the EU and Malaysia, as the two had already negotiated since 2015 the 'Partnership and Cooperation Agreement'.

The EU had also adopted in 2021 the Indo-Pacific Strategy of Cooperation and Malaysia updated it's foreign policy framework recently.

"I strongly believe more bilateral avenues of cooperation between Romania and Malaysia is the best approach supporting the EU-Asean and ASEM platform in 2022 and the years to come," she said.

On another note, Nineta, the first woman to be appointed as ambassador of Romania in Malaysia, said that Malaysia and Romania shared many similarities in terms of geography, culture and occasionally history.

One of them was the distinct three crescents on Romania's coat-of-arms – to depict the historical provinces of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania – as well as symbols of a sun and moon, similar to that of Malaysia's national symbols.

"There is a cape named 'Romania Point' in Kota Tinggi (east of Kampung Baharu near Sungai Musoh) in Johor, coincidentally an essential point during the famous Pedra Branca judicial dispute on May 23, 2008 at the International Court of Justice (in the Hague, Nertherlands)," said Nineta.

And in Penang there is another Bukit Romania, grasping the stories behind these names.

The Romanian language and Bahasa Malaysia have many nouns identical or similar, both being phonetic languages.

For instance Romanian women use 'batic' as scarves for all four seasons, very similar to Malaysian batik, depicting national designs.

Nineta also spoke about her country's history, where 'Romania' was derived from the Latin Romanus - meaning 'Roman, Citizen of Rome'.

"Romania sits at the crossroads of central and eastern Europe, enjoying a millennia history. "Emperor Traian conquered Dacia Felix in the 106 era and during the following 165 years the mix of Roman soldiers and convicts with Dacian women transformed the people of the land - the brave Dacians and courageous Romans - into Romanians living in various provinces and states and sharing the same Romanian language," she reminisced.

The Great Union of Romania (celebrated as its National day) came on December 1, 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman empires – at the cost of 800,000 lives of Romanian heroes!

"Today Romania is a high developing country ranked third globally for Internet speed and ranked 49th in the Human Development Index.

"Romania is the sixth most-populous European Union state with 19.4 million people living domestically and 8 million abroad.

"We are proud of our worldwide largest number of international maths Olympians.

"Romania has the world's 45th largest gross domestic product economy," she said.

Romania has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, of the Council of Europe since 1994, adhered to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 2004 and joined the European Union in 2007.

"The large majority of Romania's population are ethnic Romanians and eastern orthodox Christians, speaking Romanian and a Romance language (sister language with French, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish languages).

"We have 20 ethnic minorities living harmoniously, including Hungarians (6 per cent population), Jewish, Rroma (Europe's largest ethnic minority), Turkish-Tatars and others.

"We cherish in Romania some of the oldest mosques in Europe like the Esmahan Sultan Mosque in Mangalia, near the Black Sea that was built in 1575 and it is since a place of worship for the Turkish-Tatars tiny community in Dobrogea," Nineta said.

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