German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met his Romanian counterpart for talks in Berlin  after which they commented on the future prospects of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty following its rejection by Ireland.  Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu said that EU members should do all that they can to make the conditions for the Lisbon Treaty to come into force

Lazar Comanescu, Romanian Foreign Minister said:
"... and being aware of the fact that our friends the Irish have to devise their own way of how to deal with this issue after the referendum at the beginning of June. But the important thing is that we have to work so as to.. so that this treaty enters into force."

The Lisbon Treaty was signed in 2007 after years of  negotiations and aims  to raise the EU's international profile.

The treaty has been voted in by parliaments in 21 of the 27 EU nations, but rejected by Ireland - the only one to hold a referendum.

It must be approved by all before it can come into force.

In the wide-ranging news conference, Steinmeier also touched on the three German hostages who were released by PKK rebels after being captured while on a climbing expedition in Mount Ararat, eastern Turkiye.

AP