Romanian – Egyptian Relations

A look at the early days of the Romanian - Egyptian relations

Steliu Lambru, 24.06.2024, 14:00

The decolonization and modernization of the Third World countries at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, was a new direction for mankind.

The former colonies of the European countries in Africa and Asia as well as countries from Latin America were trying their own development models.

Third World countries opted for a middle ground between socialism and capitalism and one of the most dynamic countries in this respect was Egypt, a country with an old history and new ambitions.

Egypt took Turkey as model for its modernization as they were two Muslim countries with almost similar societies, mentalities and heritages. Egypt was quite cosmopolitan, with its elites educated in Britain and France as well as the former USSR.

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the central figure of the Egyptian reformism and one of his sources of inspiration being the Turkish reformist president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Mircea Nicolaescu, a former Romanian ambassador in Egypt starting 1961, was also part of the renewal policy of the diplomatic apparatus of the Socialist Romania, a policy inaugurated by the country’s Foreign Minister Corneliu Manescu. In a 1996 interview to Radio Romania, Nicolaescu underlined the extraordinary dynamics of the Egyptian modernization.

Mircea Nicolaescu:” Egypt became one of the hottest hubs of international policies and diplomatic activities of that time thanks to several aspects. The first was because at that time Egypt was the most powerful, most developed country in the Arab world, with the greatest historical and political prestige. It was the time when Nasser and the Free Officers, as they called themselves, were resettling the Egyptian life on democratic bases, rechanneling the entire domestic activity towards the development of a country, which set out with the aim of becoming developed and civilized. The second aspect was that Egypt was a model not only for its allies in the Arab world but also for the entire region. Egypt was the de facto master of the Suez Canal, which had been built by the Egyptians but was still in British hands. Apart from that the emancipation movement in the Arab world used to have its center in Cairo.”

The European countries were attracted by the transformation of the Egyptian society and Romania was no exception to the rule. The Soviet Union had launched the policy of exerting its influence upon the former colonies and the Socialist Romania followed suit.

The Romanian-Egyptian relations had a shy start after the Egyptian revolution of 1952. In 1956, during the Suez crisis, upon Egypt’s request, Romania sent technical personnel to help with the use of the canal. Later, the bilateral relations in economy, culture, education and sport developed.

However, in its relations with the Arab world and especially with Egypt, Romania maintained its neutrality regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict.

During the Six-day War in June 1967, Romania refused to condemn Israel as an aggressor state. Mircea Nicolaescu explained that position.

Mircea Nicolaescu:” Our attitude was very clear and consistent regarding the fact that it was not the right time to say who was right or wrong. Our duty was to ensure the right conditions to stop the war and start peace talks. We came up with something new at that time and it was one of our initiatives. We offered to provide a series of products very important for the market of Cairo. They started to experience a series of issues related to the economic life and a shortage of import supplies. And I am referring to basic staples such as sugar, edible oil, flour, crude and several others.”

Providing those food supplies to Egypt became a top priority. The instability, which followed the country’s defeat risked to degenerate into anarchy and Romania’s offer also included a financial loan.

Mircea Nicolaescu:” Only a couple of battalions were left in Cairo out of their formidable army. And the authority started to deteriorate rapidly on many levels. And there were people who wanted to take advantage of the situation created. So we made an offer, first through the Foreign Ministry, to negotiate an agreement, which was also supposed to be the prerequisite for a high-level contact with the Egyptian authorities. The agreement had been prepared for three years and it didn’t run smoothly from the beginning in terms of reaching mutually acceptable or mutually–advantageous conclusions. I started off from the idea of setting up a common relations framework as wider as possible. What was very clear to me was that the interests were quite significant and easy to adjust from either side. Having access to the Suez Canal was always an essential issue for us, as was cotton supplies.”

Between 1960 and 1990, Romania and Egypt built a relationship based on the interests they had at that time. After 1990, that relationship was reshaped according to their new interests.

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