The metaphor chosen by Traian Băsescu to describe the state of the relationship between Romania and the USA. “Maybe it's a little forced”
Traian Basescu. Inquam Photos / Ioana Zamfir
Former president Traian Băsescu declared, on Friday, on B1 TV, that Romania must become attractive to the United States “from all points of view, not only from a strategic point of view, and keep its word in fulfilling the commitments assumed.
Asked what approach Romania should have in the relationship with the USA in the current context, the former head of state answered with a metaphor: “It is a context that resembles a desert, but we have to plant wheat in this desert, to ensure our food.
“Maybe the metaphor is a bit forced, but we have to maintain the relationship with the United States. Here, however, we have some problems, some difficulties, because we did not properly treat this relationship based on the Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century,” continued Traian Băsescu.
The former president gave two examples in which he believes that Romania did not treat the bilateral relationship “properly”.
“I remind you, Chevron came, priests and people came out of Vaslui County, well-informed and the people, and the priests, that Chevron has nothing to look for there to evaluate the shale gas resources that we would have, and we have, but due to the atmosphere Chevron left Romania – and it is one of the seven largest oil companies in the world. Exxon came to the Black Sea, at Neptun Deep, they brought the highest drilling and evaluation technology gas fields, of course we came up with Dragnea's law which showed Exxon what rights we have over the gas and made them leave”, Băsescu added.
“If we had Exxon in the Black Sea, we had no risk with the Russians”
Traian Băsescu warned that “we can have very big problems” in the Black Sea, given that Romania's Exclusive Economic Zone is not covered by the collective defense clause of the NATO founding Treaty.
“If we had Exxon in the Black Sea, we wouldn't have a headache, we wouldn't have any risk with the Russians, who are also in the Black Sea and we can have very big problems, because the area where the field is located, 165 kilometers from the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, is not covered by the agreement with NATO, so it would have been very good for us to have Exxon there,” he added.
Băsescu said that we must “start keeping our word in the relationship with the Americans”.
“Let's keep our word with the contract with the mini-reactors, which are designed to be installed in Doicești. They are the six nuclear mini-reactors with a capacity of 77 megawatts each, to produce electricity,” added the former head of state.
“We have to become attractive from all points of view”
He said about the Romanian-American Chamber of Commerce that “it has always been a catalyst, it tried, it struggled to bring American companies to Romania.”
“We have to become attractive from all points of view, not only from a strategic point of view, that is, we have Deveselu, we have a base at Kogălniceanu, we have Cincu, which is also a NATO base, we have Turda, which is also very important from the point of view of the use of surveillance drones and attack drones, so we would have some arguments. Everything is to put them in order and do the right thing,” Traian Băsescu said.
