Good morning ladies and gentlemen!
I am trying to see who is behind the cameras. I am trying to figure out the way I could greet my colleagues who are here, for their effort to have come here in spite of their busy agendas.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming to the first press conference organized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs
There are several manners to present an action strategy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the contents of a new tenure. There is a very dry manner, which could become boring and there is a more lively formula, which could offer some answers to your questions.
I am going to cover both perspectives and be very convincing, although I am sure facts only can prove what I try to outline. I shall try to be appealing as I hope to would address those who by age, intellectual capacity and desire would be interested in pursuing a diplomatic career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Before entering the hall you must have noticed my colleague’s diplomats, who are among us. I hope you have noticed that they all are young. You may not know, their professional biography is impressive before they reached 30. I am proud to say, many of them I have known since prior 2004, they are people whose vocation I trust.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no interruption in its activity due to the change of leadership. It is a responsible ministry. It is a ministry with good institutional capacity. It is a ministry whose position in the government is stable and whose competences in coordinating Romania’s foreign policies, Romania’s foreign policy expression is fundamental. Now we can refer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as to a governmental institution which, from the very first month managed to schedule a visit of the Prime Minister to Hungary, a visit of the Prime Minister to Brussels, to the European Commission, a visit of Romania’s President to London and many other issues connected to the national calendar have taken shape through the efforts of my colleagues within days.
Contacts with counterparts, some on the phone, some directly were present. They all started on 30 December. In the meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has become a place attended by the most important and interesting actors on the regional scene. I am going to mention dr.Erhard Busek, probably the best specialist in Brussels on the events in the Balkans and probably the best informed specialist regarding regional cooperation projects in South-Eastern Europe.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the one, who shortly after the first government meeting, notified the world that the Executive governed by Calin Popescu Tariceanu kept to its electoral promises.
It is probably one of the few ministries where the leader understands to appreciate the efforts of his predecessor. On this occasion, I strongly state the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had good leaders, irrespective of historical circumstances and political situation, irrespective of internal chemistry, arguments between parties. There were people who dedicated themselves to the institution, people who learnt, some during their career, some from their first day in office, to defend this institution, to confer the dignity it deserves and to ask, equally, effort and honest involvement.
It is a pleasure for me to add that many of Mircea Geoana’s projects, projects of institutional reform, will be continued in the spirit they were launched and at a pace required by the present situation.
2005 is an essential year for Romania’s history. Between now and 2007 there is a span of time when our country will undergo one of the most thorough processes of modernization, even known. Structures will change, values on which Romania will be built will be differently selected, and eventually, Romania will possess a different landscape of mentalities, more relaxed, more open-minded and more preoccupied with what is going to happen with our own country, besides our European partners.
We intend to have perseverant action, to be involved in the real sense, not rhetorically, to be pro-active, not to wait for reaction as regards political, economic, social or cultural process at regional level, at European level or at global level. We think Romania has the right to find its right place among states of medium size, influence and power. Thus I underline the distance we take from the tempting rhetoric of passive foreign policy. We are a state who knows its resources and we think that we can be honest in what we commit ourselves to achieve. We do not choose excessive targets and we will present at work in larger numbers than before.
As I said, 2005 is an important year. On April 25 the Accession Treaty to the European Union is to be signed. At the same time, it is the year when Romania gets the chance, well-deserved however, to take part in the institutional construction, political and cultural of Great Europe, there where the number of Romanian citizens to become international civil servants will grow, thus, the influence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will grow.
This is the reason we ask a change in foreign policy stylistics, a different way of being present in international relations. I mentioned perseverance, and I add another word – honesty. We overcome the instinctive action and we gain, in the way, recognition of our own dignity.
Five are the action directions meant to support our accession to the European Union. Firstly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs watches the compliance with commitments taken during accession negotiations. Secondly, we prepare the signing of the Accession Treaty and the promotion of its ratification by member states. It is a political operation of importance which involves, as I was saying to the Commissions for Foreign Policy three weeks ago, political unanimity. This namely proves mature understanding of the necessity to unite efforts for the promotion of an adequate image for our country. It involves more than that, concentration of efforts, which is admitted by the Executive, by parliamentary relations, by sectorial dialogues between ministries in different countries, and so on and so forth. The third objective, we prepare to assume membership in European institutions and we wish to use the opportunities offered by observer statute by 2007, at the maximum. This means, Romanian presence in all European institutions. The fourth objective, to define Romania’s European profile – we are not only a candidate country, we are Romania. We will not be one of the many countries in the European Union, we are a state at the border of the European Union, as we are a state at the eastern limit of the North-Atlantic Alliance. All this necessitates a different definition and different responsibilities. The fifth objective is represented by the enhancement of the campaign for European communication.
In what way we are going to build them ? On what grounds ? On partnership relations with all European states and mainly with all European Union member states.
As regards our internal institutional adaptation to the five objectives, we need to sort out, as soon as possible and as consistently as possible, three priorities: adaptation of our mission in Brussels from a structural point of view – resources, civil servants, some diplomatic, some civil servants representives of ministries, informational flow at the level of permanent representative capable to ensure the expression of Romania’s interests in Brussels, not only those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.This is a different kind of embassy. The second priority needs to be here, in the headquarters, to adapt our structures and functions to the requirements of a European ministry in continuous administrative reconstruction. Moreover, we need to connect the ministry to necessary expertise for daily European Union activities. This time, our foreign policy is molded by the commitment calendar of member states. We will plan our staff differently, we will differently plan competence distribution, we will differently plan our presence abroad.
The strategic partnership with the US, still is an essential, privileged element of foreign policy, by means of putting to value this partnership we support our reforms at a political, economic, military and administrative level. We cooperate, as before, but we hope to have a better, more honest collaboration in all important issues connected to the Washington-Bucharest rapport.
Romania, as a North-Atlantic Alliance member. Our core strategic objective for the first six months is represented by completing the definition of our country relating to the Alliance and to the Alliance member states. We are not but a member state of the North-Atlantic Alliance, we are that member state of the North-Atlantic Alliance lying at the eastern frontier, bordering the Black Sea, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. All this contributes to the special definition Romania deserves to have. We think that in six months’ time we can list the qualities our country can present as added value both to the North-Atlantic Alliance and to the European Union, singling it out from the group we belong to.
We continue our actions to configure our country as an outpost of the North-Atlantic Alliance in the political space, as part of integrated vision of consolidating regional security, on four action vectors. The first: getting European and Euro-Atlantic institutions involved in the spirit of the Istanbul summit conclusions. We need the objective support from Washington and Brussels besides our subjective perspective and our sensitivity. We need the Eastern border of enlarged Europe to contain added sensitivity. We consider them necessary, and we think that we can offer knowledge, experience and political mobility, in exchange.
The second direction of action: strengthening mechanisms of regional cooperation in the Black Sea and the Caucasus region. We are caught in such cooperation projects, we have co-authored some of them, we are interested to go on with them. We want to use the added value of our strategic profile obtained by our involvement in projects of stability, democracy, strengthening of faith and security in the Black Sea region. Last but not least, we intend to raise our partners’ trust in what we can deliver: a set of expertise and tenacity. We think that we can offer, both in the region, in south-eastern Europe and in the Black Sea region to each bilateral partner a menu of successes and failures from which everybody could learn or anybody could use. We can offer a model of functioning democracy, we can offer models of transborderly cooperation or good-neighborly relations, in spite of problematic history.
As regards the Republic of Moldova, we are the first to lay the foundation of special partnership between Romania and the Republic of Moldova. We trust this political project that we consider as necessity, as vocation; it is not only a project of the ministry, it is its dedication. It is one of the pillars on which our action is built. We are those who offer to the Republic of Moldova. We are the first to have supported the European attraction of the Republic of Moldova, as much as it is. We offer routes, maps to Brussels. We wish them to be useful. Our economic office in the Republic of Moldova needs much help coming from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The help will come. To underline what I want to tell you, I am going to offer you one piece of information which, I believe, is relevant enough for our projects in the Republic of Moldova.: we are going to build a new Embassy there. More comprehensive, more interesting and more relevant for what we intend to do. We are interested in Moldova as at our border there is an unsolved conflict. We are the ones to offer, in our capacity of NATO liaison centre in Kishinev for the next two years, as regards our expertise, knowledge and creative solutions for settling the Transdniestrian conflict.
The Russian Federation is for Romania an issue of pragmatic action, at political level, at economic level. In coordinance with the policy of good-neighborly relations of the European Union we wish to implement and to which we intend to give a clear shape, according to our interests in the region.
All partnerships to the East, including partnership with Ukraine are built on the opportunity, on the chance offered by any democratic process already launched or underway. We consider that, by offering European solutions, we can develop, we can build European neighborhood. The same things we deliver to our partners in the Caucasus, in Georgia, Adzerbaidjan, Armenia.
Our regional policy in the south-eastern Europe will be governed by three necessities: Romania’s offensive assertion, as interested party in the promotion and pursuit of its own direct, economic and political interests, the policy of good-neighborly relations and regional cooperation having as stake Euro-Atlantic integration of the south-eastern European states.
Romania has the opportunity in its capacity as chairman-in-office of the South-Eastern European Cooperation process to get involved so much as to make its presence in the regional processes indispensable not optional. Romania has the chance to be present with all it can offer, politically, economically or culturally. And it deserves to be.
We intend to contribute to the stability of the neighboring regions. We intend to signal the necessity of border security. We intend to signal the necessity of good administration of illegal migration. We intend to participate in combating organized crime, trafficking in persons. It is our contribution to the making of European policy that is going to define us for the next two years.
We intend to add a new focus on the Danube Cooperation Process, perhaps the best pretext to be in Central Europe, although, geographically we belong to South-Eastern Europe.
We intend to promote the role of national minorities, communication and linking element with the neighboring states, for the benefit of the same objective that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs serves: regional stability, by keeping European cultural diversity, and by demonstrating that this behavior is an honest one, not a fake one.
We will be active in promoting our experience regarding our relation to the past. As regards the issue of the Holocaust, the steps that Romania has taken in correctly admitting its past, in having professionals work in order to assess our recent history, a just and careful balance, all this distinguishes us from many of the countries in Eastern Europe. I would like to believe that at the level of this part of the continent, Romania’s experience regarding political and historical sincerity could be repeated in other places as well. We will make it known.
Relations with states on other continents: they will be characterized by pragmatism and openness. We intend to collaborate with all ministries to promote our interests, by combining favorable political factors and any favorable economic circumstance. We will take part in the World Exhibition in Aichi, in Japan, we will promote our economic potential, we will show Asia that we exist, not only as a geographical detail.
In the Security Council, 2005 stands for a stage of maturity and capitalization on the present tenure. It is 50 years since Romania joined the United Nations. We will direct our efforts to a series of issues of extreme importance to us: we will organize a Security Council mission in Kosovo. 2005 is a year of decisions for what is happening in our neighborhood and we will try to send strong messages, clear messages as regards the future shape of the region. We will support the international community in the Iraqi economic and political reconstruction process.
Our presence abroad: we understand to assume an integrating role of our state relating to the Romanians abroad and to contribute to the assertion of Romanian identity, by ensuring coherence to the projects focusing on good relations with the country.
We consider that the new leadership of the Romanian Cultural Institute will bring us a supplement of complementarily. As I have covered this issue, allow me to say some words about cultural diplomacy. Political diplomacy is insufficient for promoting our interests abroad. This is the reason many diplomats are both diplomats with a certain competence in politics but with solid competence in economics. To that we have to add something else: Romanian intelligence, especially cultural one, authentic cultural biographies. We will have to, and we try to do it, together with the future leadership of the Romanian Cultural Institute to equip cultural centres differently. There should be people who can address the different environments adequately to represent us and to honor us there. We think that we must be present in Poland, as well as in Asia where there is no Romanian Cultural Centre.
We will continue the diplomatic projects we launched six years ago, involving the archives of the Ministry. This is the best way to show our past.
The intellectual contribution of the civil society will play an essential part in determining tactical details of our foreign policy. We intend to consult the experts in think-tanks, we intend to involve the civil society in drawing the details of our policies, we intend to verify the effects, the results by collaboration with them.
Collaboration with you, esteemed colleagues of the media, will be sincere, direct and professional at the same time.
Coming back to the Ministry, some words about institutional reforms: we wish to change a management culture. We want this ministry to be led as a ministry, not as an embassy. This involves something more. It involves honest effort of reconstruction of our personnel policy, delicate handling, if necessary, but firm of intricate decisions that any leader has to take at a certain moment- retirement, for example, giving the right honor to the colleagues who leave the Diplomatic Corps.
We intend to reorganize the ministry so that authority lines be clearly defined, without overlapping or bureaucratic excess.
We intend to build a coherent and stimulating system of diplomatic career planning to include salary measures, measures to motivate young diplomats and a different way of involving them into the activity of this institution.
We will carefully watch the Diplomatic Corps’ performance. Severe criteria, responding to what the institution and the Executive offer to the diplomats. Criteria of honesty and professionalism.
We feel uncomfortable about the practice of including in the diplomatic corps, at the active levels of diplomatic corps or in the administrative sector of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, people politically related. This ministry is politically managed, as it should be, but there, here a diplomatic career is built and where a diplomatic career gets its expression, party policy is excluded. I would like there to be only one policy, that of the Romanian state. We do not intend to tolerate imposture, imposture reveals itself in every gesture. It cannot be hidden. We refuse to tolerate lack of performance and we will ask as much. We intend to be relentless with any action going beyond the limits of institutional diplomatic exercise and coming in conflict with the law.
On the other hand, we want to recognize merits, efforts made by our colleagues in the ministry, we wish to be sincere in recognizing the individual dignity of our colleagues in the ministry, giving to everybody what he or she deserves.
We wish for a decent living standard for our young colleagues, we want to give them the opportunity to get rid of the troubles of an existence where every cent counts. We want to offer them the chance to have professional conduct that others do not have.
I have supported and I also have the support of the government, of the Prime Minister of Romania to operate a change of the salary system. This is essential. A system allowing for stimulative salary, especially for the young who join the diplomatic service. Moreover, the government, I remind you, has recently approved the budget to cover this year, for the first time, the provisions in the Law regarding salary for the diplomatic service personnel.
We have launched projects to ensure to the young diplomats decent accommodation in intervention residences and we wish to make possible building contracts for those interested.
We will cooperate within the government, with openness and professionalism with our colleagues in the Ministry of Defense, in the Ministry of Administration and Home Affairs, with the Ministry of Justice, with all the other members of the Supreme Council for the Defense of the Country to consolidate the institutional framework for the preparation of our participation in the North-Atlantic Alliance activities and, in the future, in the European Policy for Defense and Security. We have good relations with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. We will consider with much care our dialogue with the Ministry of the Environment, at the same time, defending Romania’s interests or expressing Romania’s interests where we are expected to be performant for the next two years.
We will continue our reform in the consular system. This is one of our institutional reform project. 27 consulates must be raised to European Union standards. This is a commitment resulting from the negotiations. The process will continue in the following years as it involves large financial resources. But we wish that by 2008, Romania’s consulates function at that standard, and our colleagues involved in ensuring their functioning respond promptly, to meet the expectations of any citizen. We will ensure the installation and working of the system Visa on-line in over 50 consulates and the procedure to schedule training and performance assessment for each consul and consular employee is to be completed. We will extend the Consulate General and we will extend the network of Honorary Consulates at the same time. Thus, Romania’s representation, costly or based on generosity to meet our expectations.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will stop here. This is an outline of our interests, listed according to priorities, major interests, depending on our expectations and depending on our capacity. We wish to be honest and to tell you that we need your support, esteemed colleagues of the media. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not serve one government, it serves each citizen and each citizen is a taxpayer. This is in fact the change of perspective I intend to bring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In order to do that, we need understanding, loyalty, benevolence, last but not least, the faith that many things could change for the better. Thank you. |
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