The Romanian Institute for Europe-Asia Studies (IRSEA) has learnt, with immense sadness and outpouring grief, the regrettable news of her late Majesty’s demise, paying homage to her and her Majesty’s much respected legacy in Asia.

IRSEA’s President and Founder, Ambassador (p) Gheorghe Savuica, who had a memorable moment by welcoming her late Majesty on October 25, 1981, in Sri Lanka, expressed his deep pain over the passing of the late Queen and his full simpathy toward the British Royal Family and all the British and Commonwealth people. Ambassador (p) Savuica similarly expressed his gratitude for her late Majesty’s lifelong contribution to world peace and her role in ever-strenghtening the remarkable ties between Europe and Asia.

A unique bonding factor between Europe and Asia, Queen Elizabeth II represented the unifying presence of all the Commonwealth realms and an icon of goodwill among both European and Asia nations.

During her reign of 70 years, the late Queen commanded deep respect as a global figure, including in Asia.

Her late Majesty was a regular visitor to Asia: in 1954, only two years after she took the throne of her illustrious father George VI, she visited the Maldives and Sri Lanka, which she later revisited in 1981, in 1961 she visited India and Pakistan, in 1972 she visited Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei and in 1983 she visited Bangladesh. The late Queen’s last visit to Asia was in 2006, in Singapore, as the head of the British Commonwealth. The late Queen frequently traveled to Pacific island nations within the Commonwealth, i.e. Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Samoa and was hosted in Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, China, and South Korea. The late Queen was the first ever British monarch to visit China in 1986, when she visited the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Great Wall, and reaffirmed the British commitment to return Hong Kong to China, a promise which she fulfilled in 1997.

Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother, assumed the throne at the age of 25. Her late Majesty died on Thursday at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle, surrounded by her children. She has been succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III.