Nicușor Dan receives an American delegation led by a senator influential in US foreign policy. Who is Jeanne Shaheen?

The Presidential Administration announced that, on Monday, from 5:00 p.m., President Nicușor Dan will receive an American delegation, led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen, at the Cotroceni Palace. She is the leader of the Democratic group in the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate.

Jeanne Shaheen was the governor of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2003, and since 2009 she has been a New Hampshire senator for the Democrats.

As a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, she showed a constant interest in our country and the Black Sea region in general, and illustrated herself as a supporter of Ukraine in the face of the invasion launched by Russia in 2022.

She initiated a law requiring the American administration to develop a strategy for the security of the Black Sea region, and in February 2023 she visited Romania for the first time. Then he met with former Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă and spoke for a strong American military presence in the countries on the eastern flank of NATO.

A special interest for Romania

In December 2024, after the annulment of the presidential elections in Romania, Sheehan was a co-signatory of the senatorial committee's statement condemning Russia's interference in the electoral process and the manipulation of voters through TikTok.

“As a strong NATO ally, we support Romania in the fight for the integrity of its elections. We condemn Putin's manipulation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled TikTok to undermine Romania's democratic process. The world must wake up to the serious threat to democracy posed by Russia's manipulation of TikTok to undermine our free societies,” the statement quoted by Free Europe said.

Also, Sheehan was among the signatories, three Republicans and three Democrats, of a statement asking Romanians, before the second round of the presidential elections in May, to vote for a pro-EU and pro-NATO option. “We remain confident in the strength of democracy in Romania and we reaffirm the firm alliance between the United States and Romania. Romania is a vital and reliable ally of NATO, a net contributor to the security of Europe and a leader in securing NATO's eastern flank. Romania constantly asserts its importance, from supporting Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion to partnering with Moldova to accelerate its entry into the European Union,” said the six senators.

The same senators sent a congratulatory message to Nicușor Dan, on May 21, after his election as president. “There are many things we can achieve when we work together. From supporting Ukraine, to strengthening energy partnerships, to protecting our democracies, the Euro-Atlantic community is stronger when it has Romania by its side,” the message said.

Also, Jeanne Sheehan criticized the Pentagon's decision, last fall, to withdraw 1,000 of the 2,000 American soldiers who are in Romania. At the hearing of the new US ambassador in Bucharest, Darryl Nirenberg, she insisted that it was not fair to Romania that US support should decrease, as long as Hungary, which imports Russian oil, did not suffer from a troop withdrawal. And he recalled that Romanian officials requested the reintegration of the US force.

A modified announcement of the Cotroceni Palace

In the initial announcement of the Presidential Administration, later modified, it was said that Republican Senator Thom Tillis (North Carolina) was also part of the American delegation. He was also among the signatories of the declaration between the two rounds of the presidential elections and of the congratulatory message addressed to Nicușor Dan.

These days, Sheehan and Tillis were at the Munich Security Conference. In early September 2025, the two US senators sent letters to Meta and Alphabet (Google's parent company), asking them to take urgent measures to prevent the use of online platforms in Russian-backed disinformation and political financing campaigns ahead of the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova.

A few days before the parliamentary vote in Chisinau, they signed, along with other senators, a statement stating that “there is clear and overwhelming evidence that Russia is conducting a state-sponsored campaign to interfere in the upcoming elections, just as it blatantly did last year.”

Like Sheehan, Tillis is also a consistent supporter of Ukraine, and recently accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of being close to Moscow.

“It's sad that Orbán clearly prefers to be a puppet of Putin instead of a friend of NATO. It's something the Hungarian people should consider when they go to the polls this spring,” wrote Thom Tillis, in a post on X, according to Digi24.ro.