Romania’s Cards to Show in the Oval Office

The big day for Romanian President Traian Basescu arrived when he stepped, next to his American counterpart, George W. Bush, in the Oval Office, on the occasion of his official visit to the United States. Basescu was accompanied to Washington by a large delegation of people able to address the three main types of issues on the agenda: political, economic and military.

Traian Basescu left for his official visit to Washington with a long list of issues to discuss

After a ten-hour flight, the Romanian presidential plane landed on Andrews military base at 22:40 Bucharest-time, with the last quarter of an hour before landing made interesting by the strong winds which battered the plane.

When he left Bucharest, Basescu was relaxed. He met the journalists on board after some four hours into the flight. He answered questions and embarked on topical analyses of foreign politics, also addressing one of his pet topics, the one of arriving at early elections after repeated resignations of the Executive. Basescu deemed the timing to be right since approval rates for both the ruling coalition and Prime Minster Calin Popescu Tariceanu are high. Also important was deemed the fact that Theodor Stolojan [who stepped down as presidential candidate for health reasons, to let Basescu take over] was now recuperating, hence he could take over again the leading seat in positioning the ruling coalition at the top in the electoral race.

The Romanian President briefed the media on the topics he was to address in Washington. Though his was a political visit, Basescu was to also approach economic and military issues, like the re-location of American military bases on Romanian soil, albeit on a smaller scale than the bases Washington dismantles in Western Europe. Basescu thought that by the end of this year Romania will have a clear answer from the Americans. Diplomatic sources said that the meeting the president will have with Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, is not likely to set up a clear time-table.

Basescu’s meeting with Bush was scheduled to start at 10:55 local time [17:55 Bucharest time] and to last 35 minutes. This meant the Romanian President had to present a coherent image of Romania in 2005: a partner of the United States and a future European Union member state.

Basescu wanted to state once again, in front of both Bush and of the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, that Bucharest is a firm ally of the West, ready to pursue an active policy in stabilizing the Black Sea region, which some strategists regard as a niche issue.

Other issues on the agenda to be addressed in Washington were the attempt to persuade the International Monetary Fund to accept Romania to run a higher budget deficit, of 0.7%, instead of the 0.4%, which was the initial proposal of the IMF.

The IMF has its arguments against going with 0.7% change, while the Romanian government has its arguments too: the ability to spend more in order to invest and thus boost the economy. Basescu was confident a compromise could be reached on this issue.

Sources in Washington stated that one of the topics most certainly to be addressed will be the one of international adoptions, as 200 cases were pending in court when the moratorium on international adoptions was enforced by authorities in Bucharest, as requested by European legislation.

Serendipity or not, but Wednesday, Bruce Jackson spoke in front of the Committee for Intentional Relations of the US Senate on another pet-topic of Basescu: the Black Sea region. Jackson is well known to Romanians particularly from the pre-accession period to NATO. According to Jackson’s analysis, the Black Sea region is experiencing great changes, and Bulgaria and Romania, the newest two NATO member states, are an example of stability worth copying. Jackson also said that the chances for democracy to take roots in this region will considerably grow when the two countries will also accede to the EU. Furthermore, Jackson said, painful reforms pay off since they bear the fruits of security and prosperity.