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| ROMANIA'S MIDDLE EAST RELATIONS 27/10/2009 |
| (2009-10-27) |
| Last updated: 2009-10-28 17:44 EET |
Romania has always tried to maintain a balanced attitude towards the conflict in the Middle East. Even in the communist period, at the end of the 1960s, Bucharest was the only capital city behind the Iron Curtain that did not break off diplomatic ties with Israel, despite showing solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Moreover, Nicolae Ceausescu, who saw himself as a negotiator of global stature, claimed he could mediate talks between Jews and Arabs.
Later, Romania’s all three post-communist presidents, Ion Iliescu, Emil Constantinescu and Traian Basescu travelled to both Israel and the West Bank, where they met senior political figures from the two sides. Diplomatic experts say the position of the Romanian authorities is understandable given that Israel is home to hundreds of thousands of Romanian-born Jews, while in the West Bank and Gaza there are thousands of Romanian women married to Palestinian men who graduated from Romanian universities. On a trip to the region, the state secretary with the Romanian Foreign Ministry Doru Costea, travelled to both Jerusalem and Ramallah. Doru Costea:
“We have agreed with our Israeli partners to expand and diversify our sectoral dialogue at the level of decision makers and to boost economic cooperation between Romanian and Israeli companies, both in Romania and Israel and in other countries. Naturally, we also exchanged views about the recent developments in the Middle East, with emphasis on the dialogue between the European Union and Israel and the opportunities arising from the recent events in the region, including the announcements made by the representatives of the Palestinian Authority with respect to the future elections.”
In Ramallah, Costea attended the opening of Romania’s Representation Office, in fact its first diplomatic mission to the Palestinian territories. The Romanian state secretary explains that opening the Office was part of a strategy to develop relations with the countries in the Middle East. The Romanian official also stated the Office’s main tasks:
“Its main responsibility is to provide consular assistance to citizens of Romanian origin living in the West Bank and also to continue and diversify Romania’s dialogue with the Palestinian National Authority.”
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