The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate informs us:
On 28 April 2010, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church received, at the Patriarchal Residence, the visit of His Excellency Mr. Walid Othman, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in Romania.

During the meeting, the Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in Romania thanked for reception and made a short presentation of the religious cultural life in Syria, underlining the good relations of companionship and co-operation between Christians and Muslims.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel appreciated the spirit of religious tolerance in Syria and mentioned the pastoral activity of Rev. Gheorghe Costea, the priest of the Romanian Orthodox community in Syria (set up in 2009) who paid a pastoral visit to the Romanian Orthodox faithful in the capital city of Lebanon, Beirut, at the feast of the Holy Easter, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Further on, the Patriarch of Romania appreciated that the presence of Romanian Orthodox parish in Damascus contributes to a better mutual knowledge. In this context, His Beatitude informed Mr. Ambassador about the intention of the Pilgrimage Centre of “Saint Paul the Apostle” of the Romanian Patriarchate to extend, in the near future, to Syria and Lebanon, the pilgrimages organized in the Middle East in order to increase the cultural religious relations between the two peoples and countries.

On this occasion, the Syrian Ambassador in Bucharest handed over to His Beatitude Patriarch “an invitation letter on behalf of the Ministry for Religious Affairs to make a pilgrimage to Syria, in the footsteps of Saint Paul the Apostle”, to churches, monasteries and some other Christian vestiges in this country of the Middle East.

His Beatitude thanked for invitation and said it may be paid this year, when his agenda and responsibilities allow the organization of such a visit to the Middle East, according to the Orthodox protocol rules.

To end with the encounter, His Excellency Mr. Walid Othman offered His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel a hierarch’s vestment – as a present - sewed by hand, for eight months time, in an Orthodox Monastery of the Patriarchate of Antioch and of the entire East. The Patriarch of Romania, in his turn, offered the Syrian Ambassador in Bucharest symbolic presents representing the Romanian Patriarchate.