Cristian Diaconescu's visit to Moscow, a new stage in Romanian-Russian relations

 

 

Bucharest, Feb 28 /Agerpres/ - Minister of Foreign Affairs Cristian Diaconescu on Friday was on a working visit to Moscow, during which he made an assessment of the stage of the bilateral relations, as a whole, together with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

'I had a substantial talk with Mr Sergey Lavrov, we made an objective assessment of the stage of the bilateral relations, as a whole, and agreed on the measures that must be taken in order to pass to a superior stage,' the Romanian chief diplomat summed up the talks he held with this Russian counterpart in a news conference.

Minister Diaconescu identified three of Romania's priorities in its relation with the Russian Federation: striking the trade balance, consolidating the Romanian presence in the Russian economy as well as drawing up and supporting some joint projects on third markets.

He emphasized the fact that Russia was an important partner in Romania's eastern neighbourhood, with which our country wants to have a pragmatic, future oriented relation, and added that the Bucharest authorities were open to the development of these relations.

When asked if Russia extended Romania the invitation to take part in the South Stream project, Diaconescu answered that the alternative sources of power supply were an aspect our country had in mind, whereas Lavrov said that the two countries had no obstacles whatsoever in their cooperation in the gas field.

'The economic projects play an important part in any bilateral relation and these questions are being approached. The energy sources for Romania and the alternatives in this respect are a field we have in mind. We support the materialization of these projects on the basis of some objective assessments,' said Cristian Diaconescu after the official talks with Sergey Lavrov.

When asked if they talked about a possible meeting of Romanian President Traian Basescu and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the two ministers said that, in the Russian-Romanian economic relations, 'the political component can only give an impetus.'

'As Mr Diaconescu put it too, one must send an impetus from the political level in order to solve this problem. As for the remaining part, the role of politics is minimal. In this case, quite important are the relations among businesses. Here the role of politicians must be reduced to minimum,' said Lavrov.

He mentioned that Traian Basescu and former President Vladimir Putin met last year (on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Bucharest) and this year there had been telephone conversations between the heads of the two states and made it clear that 'such contacts will go on in the future too.'

As for the transnistrian issue Lavrov said that the 5+2 negotiating formula for regulating the difference would stay unchanged and that the participants in the negotiations must concentrate on the question of settling the conflict, not on geo-political games.

'Our efforts are directed to preparing a propitious ground for resuming the negotiation in the 5+2 formula: Chisinau, Tiraspol plus the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine as mediators plus the EU and the US as observers, which were interrupted in late February 2006,' said Sergey Lavrov.

In the first part of the visit he paid to Moscow the Romanian chief diplomat gave a news conference at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs dealing with the evolution of the Russian-Romanian relations after the enlargement of the European Union in 2007. His speech was prefaced by rector of the above-mentioned institution Aleksandr Panov.

Minister Diaconescu emphasized the fact that Romania and Russia must leave behind the differences in their outlook on certain questions in order to build a powerful and pragmatic relation.

'Romania and Russia share a joint outlook on several questions and as regards others they think differently. We must realize how important these questions are, how we must leave these differences behind in order to build a powerful and pragmatic relations,' said Cristian Diaconescu.

He voiced Romania's conviction that the strategic partnership between the European Union and Russia must become one of the pillars of the future of Europe. 'Russia is a part of the European culture and civilization, something that generations of Romanians still have on their minds,' said Cristian Diaconescu.

The Romanian Foreign Minister stressed the fact that the Helsinki Final Act and the UN Charter must underlie the settlement of conflicts and added that, in this question, Romania shared the view of the EU and NATO.

Speaking of something else, Diaconescu voiced appreciation for the Russian school of diplomacy and said that the young Russian and Romanian diplomats must make a 'positive agenda,' which should contribute to the development of the relations between the two countries.

'As a career diplomat, I have a deep respect for the Russian school of diplomacy and am glad that, in the past few years, Romanian diplomats took the courses of the Russian Diplomatic academy,' said Cristian Diaconescu, who added that he was delighted to be at the headquarters of the prestigious institution.

 

[Source: Romanian National News Agency AGERPRES ]