Gift from Qaddafi: From Ceausescu to Basescu

There are many stories about the Libyan leader, Moammer Al-Qaddafi, and the ways he welcomes the state leaders. He doesn’t seem to appreciate Blair, but he seems to like the Romanians, even if they have killed his Friend Ceausescu.

There are many stories about the Libyan leader, Moammer Al-Qaddafi, and the ways he welcomes the state leaders. He doesn’t seem to appreciate Blair, but he seems to like the Romanians, even if they have killed his Friend Ceausescu.

Colonel Qaddafi will come to Romania 20 years after the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu, because he is yet to forgive the after-the-Revolution Power in Bucharest. They say he didn’t accept a visit of Iliescu, because he had considered him the killer of his friend. However, he is under a good impression as far as Romania and the Romanians are concerned, because they had built irrigation channels, roads and houses in Libya. The Romanians extracted oil and taught the Libyan children. On Wednesday, he received an official letter from Traian Basescu. The Romanian President invited him to visit Romania in 2007 or 2008, together with the chief of the Popular Committee (the Government) and the chief of the Congress. Basescu told him: "Great Leader, I invite you to visit our country for you to see the great admiration and respect the Romanians have for you".

FRIENDLY. The ceremonial words sent to the Great Leader (as Qaddafi calls himself) are a response to his surprising care for the Romanian delegation. Traian Basescu is one of the few state leaders that received a written invitation from the Libyan leader himself. He was welcomed in the Residence inside the epicenter of Qaddafi’s fortress. This didn’t take place in the desert, nor in a tent, but in the car. Great Leader accompanied him when he left and he organized the good-bye ceremony two hours earlier in order for Basescu not to have to wait during the two evening prayers. "The Sympathy for Romania and the history of our relations generated precise dispositions from Colonel Qaddafi to the Government", President Traian Basescu told to the Romanians living in Libya.

The meeting with the leader of the Government had started with a specific request: cement. "How Much?" "As much as you can give us. Two million tons!" It would be enough for five neighborhoods, let’s hope Romania can deliver these tons very soon, the Chief of the State commented.

THE LIBYAN TEMPTATION Libya is no more on the list of the countries that finance terrorism and it has become the new attraction of the Occidentals: it owns 4 billion tons of oil and imports all the things that can be imported, from food to IT. Germany and Italy have developed trades with Tripoli, with a total value of seven billion U.S. Dollars. Libya doesn’t have any formal agreements with the E.U., and the European Commission doesn’t have any delegation in Tripoli. A long time ago, Romania used to develop a lot of trades with Libya and their value reached ten billion U.S. dollars. Today these trades reach 21 million U.S. dollars. This helped Traian Basescu criticizing the Romanian External Affairs strategy in the past 16 years. "We got used to applying the External Affairs strategy for Europe only. This proves the "professionalism" of the former leaders of the External Affairs Ministry and of the external affairs philosophers that didn’t know to go for Asia or Africa. We are now paying for both their arrogance and lack of judgment. There is a market in Libya that we lost and it will be very hard for us to get it back", Basescu said.