Arizona becomes first American state to open a commercial service in Romania

 Arizona becomes the first American state to open an economic representative office in Romania, marking the first time in the history of bilateral relations that such an approach has been taken."In the recently adopted budget for the 2026 fiscal year (October 2025 - September 2026), the state of Arizona allocated 125,000 US dollars for the opening of the representative office in Bucharest - an initiative that recognizes Romania's role as a regional hub for investment and strengthens the economic partnership with the United States," the Romanian Embassy in the US announced on Thursday, in a post on its Facebook page.According to the same source, the Commercial Service in Romania will cover Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans."The decision of the state of Arizona to open a commercial service in our country is a strong signal of confidence in the economic potential of Romania and our region. I am convinced that this initiative will strengthen trade exchanges, stimulate innovation and bring our business communities even closer, contributing to the development of a sustainable economic relationship between Romania and the United States," said Andrei Muraru, the Romanian ambassador to the US, quoted on the social media page.Arizona's economic representations have duties such as: providing commercial and export assistance to companies based in Arizona; conducting market research; identifying sales partners/ distributors /end buyers /end users; facilitating connections between companies, as well as between companies and authorities; assisting Arizona economic delegations at trade fairs/ exhibitions."The Romanian Embassy in the United States thanks Mr. Ben Toma for the support he provided to this project during his term as Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, as well as to all Romanian and US officials in the Government, Parliament, and Romanian businesspeople who contributed to turning this idea into reality. The project of opening a commercial service in Romania was built through a constant dialogue between the Romanian Embassy in Washington and the institutions of the state of Arizona, supported by official visits and support from the business community during the period 2023 - 2024: constant approaches and visits by ambassador Andrei Muraru together with other representatives of the Romanian Embassy in the United States in the state of Arizona, approaches and visits by Romanian parliamentarians, the visit of the minister of energy, Sebastian Burduja, the visit of the mayor of district 6 of Bucharest, Ciprian Ciucu, to Phoenix, visits of delegations of the Arizona House of Representatives to Romania, led by speaker Ben Toma, respectively Tim Cook, chairman of the Committee on International Trade; the visit of the AmCham delegation to Arizona," reads the same source.In February 2023, the Arizona House speaker Ben Toma established the International Trade Commission to examine opportunities for Arizona to expand its international presence, increase trade and foreign direct investment, and strengthen Arizona's ties with international partners. In April 2023, the Commission adopted the International Trade Plan, which provided for the establishment of four regional trade offices, including Romania.Arizona currently has trade offices in Mexico (Mexico City, Chihuahua, Guanajuato), Israel (Tel Aviv), Germany (Frankfurt), the Republic of Korea (Seoul), and Taipei.