Romania’s Sovereignty Goes Down The Drain Of Patriotic Plumbing

Romania would be better off if people will stop at doing only what they are qualified for, and so would its top-most diplomats, foreign affairs minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and his deputy, Teodor Baconschi, go back to their qualification as historians and leave diplomacy to the professionals.

The last case in point proving their stellar incompetence was the negotiation of the agreement Romania signed in December 2005 with the United States on the status of the American military to be stationed in Romania.

In mid February the Chamber of Deputies ratified the accord, but the subsequent debate in the specialized Senate committees brought to public attention the serious failures of this agreement.

While not losing from sight the overall positive aim of the agreement to strengthen Romania’s relations with the United States, the details in it show Romanian diplomats did not engage in negotiations from an equal partner stand.

The lack of both spine and professionalism of Romania’s diplomats made us part now to an agreement which allows the United States to attack any country using Romania’s territory, and the US military to commit crimes with impunity on its territory.

According to Articles 3-5, the US military have "unrestricted access" to Romania’s military facilities, while Romania retains for itself no right to supervise the moves the Americans decide, and is bound to give them its full support.

Another salient feature of this bilateral agreement is that it is taken out of the jurisdiction of the Law of the Treaties, regulated by the Vienna Convention, providing that eventual differences in interpreting the agreement would be solved via bilateral consultations only.

Let’s make it clear that according to international law, any attack originating on Romania’s territory against an independent state would be deemed an act of aggression, even if the forces conducting the attack are American only.

For this reason, when the US struck Libya, the independent state France did not allow fly-over rights to its fellow NATO-member state, the US.

Also, Turkey and Saudi Arabia - staunch allies of the US - opted out, when the US attacked Iraq, and did not allow the Americans to use their territory against a third party.

Well, Romania did retain part of its sovereignty with article 2.4, which provides that the American military have to ask Romanians for approval if willing to build a toilet, for instance, to make sure the environment would not be damaged.

Also, in spite of the claims to the contrary Baconschi made at the debate in the Senate committees, the truth of the written word in the agreement says that the US military stationed in or passing through Romania would be free to leave the country when they committed a crime punishable under Romania’s Criminal Code.

This was previously enshrined in Articles 3 and 8, of Law 260/2002, ratifying the 2001 US-Romania Agreement on the status of American forces in Romania.

As Ungureanu competently explained, the treaty is not infringing upon Romania’s sovereignty as Romanian facilities will stay Romanian. "All the pipes in the walls will stay Romanian," he said in a talk-show on B1TV.

Well, faced with this argument, to stay patriotic one can only rip one’s home apart, to take out any foreign made plumbing from its walls.

Translated by Anca Paduraru