Bucharest, Aug 11 /Agerpres/ - President Traian Basescu on Monday, in Sulina (eastern Romania), told the summer school 'Romanian Communities and European Identity' that they had tried quite often recently to exploit the question of the rights of the national minorities up to the limit of affecting the territorial integrity of the states.

The Head of State insisted on saying that this was a personal remark. 'I want you to know that Romania will never have such an approach. There is the situation in Kosovo, where, in the name of some so-called collective rights, the territorial integrity of a state was affected. Look at what there is in the Southern Caucasus. There too people tend to affect the territorial integrity of a state in the name of defending the rights of the minorities. There is no such thing. No state has anything dearer and more sacred than its own territorial integrity,' Basescu told the participants in the Sulina summer school.

He added that no game on behalf of the minorities in order to affect the territorial integrity of the states was possible or to be accepted.

According to Basescu, the first duty of a state is to preserve its territorial integrity. 'We can go anywhere in the world. It has become a fashion in world politics to try, under the mask of defending the rights of the minorities, to affect the territorial integrity of the states. From this point of view Romania is extremely firm and says 'yes' to the individual rights of any minority member but a categorical 'no' to collective rights,' said Basescu.

The theory of the collective rights is not admitted by anybody for the time being and by any norm of international law, said the President, who added that 'there are enough politicians who are trying to accredit it for geostrategical, geopolitical interests.'

'I do not believe in the uniqueness of the Kosovo solution. All those who recognized Kosovo's independence on behalf of the minority there, which was majority in Kosovo's territory, will not manage to convince anybody that it was a solution based on the international law,' said Traian Basescu.

He emphasized the fact that Romania would never ask the states around it to abdicate from the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity in the name of the rights of the minorities. 'You are duty bound as minority people to be loyal to the state in whose territory you live. At the same time the state in whose territory you live is duty bound to create conditions for you to preserve your language, culture, customs and attachment to your native country. There are no restrictions to come and study, we do not accept this idea. There are no administrative restrictions such as 'if he has got Romanian citizenship too, he is no longer allowed to work in the state apparatus.' Our approach is a European one and we think that we are duty bound to give you the citizenship of the Romanian State according to the law, but at the same time the states in whose territory you live are duty bound to recognize all your rights as their citizens,' said the Head of State.

Over August 11-21, under the high patronage of Romania's President, the summer school 'Romanian Communities and European Identity' is held in Sulina, which is meant for the Romanian secondary school pupils and students outside Romania.

Sursa: Agenţia Naţională de Presă AGERPRES