The Annual Reunion of the Romanian Diplomacy in Bucharest. What have the Parliament speakers told Romanian diplomats?

Romania’s foreign policy stakes, the future of the European Union and the presidency of the EU Council are high on the agenda of the Annual Reunion of the Romanian Diplomacy due in Bucharest on Tuesday and Wednesday.

FM Teodor Melescanu and the heads of the Romanian diplomatic and consular missions abroad are attending the meeting next to several foreign guests, such as the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, the Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn and the minister of foreign affair and foreign commerce from Hungary, Péter Szijjártó.

FM Teodor Melescanu stated that the preparations for the Great Union Centenary, the Romanian presidency of the EU Council, Romania’s bid for a non-permanent member in the UN Security Council and the bid for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development represent the ‘landmarks’ for the Romanian diplomats.

“These are the essential landmarks of your mandates. We equally need an economic diplomacy more clearly oriented to results,” FM Melescanu stated, adding that the Romanian diplomats must be also more connected to the latest and most innovative projects of our country.

The speakers of the Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies have attended the opening of the reunion on Tuesday.

Senate Speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu told the Romanian ambassadors and consuls that in Romania’s foreign policy “the principle of national sovereignty should have the precedence”, while Romanian citizens “should be bound to the Liberal democracy and the rule of law”.

“The principle of national sovereignty should have the precedence in our foreign policy, which means that we are not called on becoming nationalist or patriot in a populist sense (….) It’s high time we behave like a nation of free people, of equal citizens, bound to each other not by ideologies and mythologies, but by the common faith in the Liberal democracy, in the political representation, in the free enterprise and the rule of law,” Tariceanu said.

The Senate speaker also tackled the security issue, stating that the main enemy of the security is the authoritarian ruling.
“In the near future, one of the main threats against regional or world security might be our own pragmatism, the temptation to close the eyes to the side slips from the democracy of some allies, in the name of some superior, foreign, strategic or economic interests,” Tariceanu concluded.

In his turn, the Chamber speaker Liviu Dragnea told the Romanian representatives abroad that economy is the most important thing, adding though that Romania is not capable of an economic boom only with its domestic resources and for that reason foreign capital is needed and it’s here where the ambassadors’ role comes up.

“Our lifestyle here in Bucharest is much more agitated, much noisier and full of political fights, threats, raised voiced, but here among you (…) it’s a completely different environment (…) You have a noble, intelligence job, the profession of the fine words, of the depressed voice (….),” Dragnea said.

He told ambassadors they can endorse Romania’s economy by attracting investors, by enabling some bilateral agreements and by opening new markets.

“We are so staggered against what we want to become, so any development director is an emergency. If you want a rational answer, I tell you that the no.1 priority is the economy. Romania is in sore need of a sustainable economic growth. Without major progress here, all the other development and growth plans are running against a stump,” Dragnea pointed out.

“Romania hasn’t got the power of an economic boom only with its domestic resources (…) Energy and foreign capital are also needed, we need international flows and creative solutions,” the Chamber speaker concluded.

President Klaus Iohannis will meet the Romanian ambassadors and consuls attending the Annual Reunion of the Romanian Diplomacy at Cotroceni Palace on Wednesday, at 11:30.