BUCHAREST, August 28 (Itar-Tass) - Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean stated about the start of a new stage in the political dialogue with Russia.
“Romania launches a new stage of political dialogue with Russia, the main goal of which is pragmatic cooperation in many trends with this irreplaceable actor. My recent visit in Moscow, recent political and diplomatic contacts, show a clear striving of both countries to give a fresh impetus to bilateral relations ahead of the 135th anniversary of establishing the diplomatic relations between the two countries,” Corlatean said at an annual conference of Romanian ambassadors in Bucharest on Wednesday. In his words, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “agreed to discuss openly during this dialogue all issues, including those that are of special symbolical importance for both nations.”
The minister named the consolidation of Romania’s energy positions in the Caucasus among other priorities. He named “Azerbaijan as a strategic partner, Georgia as a privileged partner and Armenia as a traditional party in the negotiations.” He also stated the interest to Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in order “to expand Romanian economic presence on the regional market.” In the relations with Ukraine Corlatean finds it needed “to build up the European orientation” that Kiev has “in the interests of the whole European Union and Romania in particular.”
President Traian Basescu, Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Senate Speaker Crin Antonescu and other Romanian top officials also stated about the need to improve the relations with Russia. Meanwhile, they accuse each other of cooled relations with Moscow. “The way Romania was building up the relations with Russia in the last few years was childish. We can be firm in protecting our interests, but at the same time we can be pragmatic and constructive in the relations with Russia,” Ponta, who was appointed as prime minister in the previous year, believes. Basescu acknowledges that the mistrust to him in Moscow was caused by his pro-Western policy. “The cause of mistrust from Moscow is my policy, one of the goals of which is the irreversible orientation of the country at the West,” he stated.
“A thaw in the relations between the two countries is possible only after Basescu’s era,” former Foreign Minister Adrian Cioroianu said with confidence.