Initially published in www.romania-report.ro (Sep 17, 2005)
Bucharest, Sep 17 – Romanian President Train Basescu gave a press statement at “Henry Coanda” airport, when returning from his US visit. As addressing various issues, Basescu said UN should provide viable solution for Kosovo during Romania’s term at the presidency of the Security Council.
Basescu reviewed the US tour and underlined his disappointment that the UN Summit failed to deliver a definition to terrorism. In his opinion, defining terrorism as an ideology which is not related to cultures and religions would have been the right starting point, in order to prevent dictatorships in using such a definition in their own interests.
In the absence of a proper definition any dictator in the world might label a revolutionary movement as an act of terrorism. “At the Security Council Summit we had a definite position related to the UN cooperation with regional organizations. As UN does not always succeed in giving the right decisions regarding conflicts, zones or countries that do not observe the human rights, our point of view was that UN should upgrade the role of regional organizations, as these may provide a more accurate assessment of the problems and may intervene in due time,” Basescu said.
Romania's priority as rotating president of UN Security Council due October 1 is to effectively solve the situation in Kosovo province, also stated Romanian President Traian Basescu.
Basescu added that in the UN Plenum Session he tackled the issue of human rights in frozen conflict zones. “I gave the example of human rights non-observance in the Transdniester frozen conflict, asking UN for solutions and resolute actions.”
President Basescu said that on Sep 14 he met both Kofi Annan with whom he spoke on the UN reform and the Balkan region issues, and Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom -- in order to prepare the joint session of the Romanian and Hungarian governments.
Basescu also reminded that he met Finland’s President Mwai Kibaki, Turkish PM Recep Tayyp Erdogan, Albanian President Alfred Moisiu.
Regarding the Black Sea region issues, President Basescu spoke both with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and the acting Ukrainian foreign minister Borys Tarasyuk. Romanian President also said the press he had brief talks with President Bush, PM Blair, President Putin, and PM Berlusconi.
In the second day of the US tour, President Basescu visited San Francisco, as “commercial exchanges with Californian firms count at about 75 percent of the Romanian-US trade,” Basescu said. Romanian President underlined the recent decision of „Smithfield Foods” (which acquired “Comtim” in the Western Romanian town of Timisoara) to invest some $850 million in Romania aiming to turn our country into a viable food exporter.
President Basescu said that the most critical meeting he had was with Bechtel – as the company’s top management specifically asked for such a meeting regarding the contract for building a highway in the Romanian province of Transylvania. “I had a determined position by reiterating my previous public statements: investments in pan-European “4th corridor” represent Romania’s top priority,” Basescu said. As for the Bechtel highway contract, Basescu said that a renegotiation of the technical-economical terms is required as these were not even approved by the government which signed this contract (i.e. the former Social-Democrat government). “Prices, conditions, financing should be renegotiated but this falls under the Romanian government’s will and competences, as the President has no legal right to strike commercial deals. Therefore, I do not have the means to endorse carrying on of this contract under the initial terms – and this is what I told Bechtel’s president. (…) But I somehow admitted that, following negotiations with the present government, this contract to go on with limited state budgetary resources, as our country has not the financial power to build two highways simultaneously (…) I repeat, I did not close any deal because the president has no legal rights to do such a thing, ” Basescu added.
Romanian President was pleased to mention his visit at Oracle – company which is supporting IT upgrading high-schools and plans to open a research centre with 400 specialists in Romania.
As about his visit in Detroit, President Basescu underlined his meeting with William Ford Jr. – president of Ford carmaker. “My message to the Ford company was that a possible investment in Romania (in case this intention would materialise) is welcomed, needed and wanted by our country, as well as any other investment offer for Romania regarding car making and even trucks making sectors is welcomed,” said the President.
Basescu also labelled as “very good” the meeting with the Detroit-based Romanian diaspora. He said he publicly asked Romanians in the US (counting at about 1 million by now) to organise themselves in order to act together in dialogues with Federal Authorities.
Romania Report – according to a Romanian Presidency press release
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