Prospects of the US-Romania strategic partnership

Initiated during the visit of US president Bill Clinton to Romania, the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the USA has reached 25 years

Ştefan Stoica, 12.07.2022, 14:00

Romania has no better friend than the USA, US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken has said 25 years on from the time when Bucharest and Washington
concluded their Strategic Partnership. Twenty-five years ago, the United
States and Romania launched our Strategic Partnership. Since then, we have strengthened
ties on defense, energy, and economic cooperation. Romania has no better friend
and we share a commitment to pushing back Russia’s aggression in the region Blinken
said in a twitter message.

In a common letter on this occasion, eight former US ambassadors
to Romania said the Strategic Partnership between the two countries has proven to
be one of the best US investments in Europe. According to the diplomats, the partnership
helped the building of a stronger and prosperous Romania, which today is one of
the closest and most capable US allies in Central and Eastern Europe. In their
opinion, including Romania in the Visa Waiver programme ‘would stimulate trade,
tourism, educational exchanges, as well as human relations, which are the
foundation of Romanian-American friendship’.

According to the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis the Strategic
Partnership with the USA played an essential role in the democratic
transformation of the country and led to the expansion of bilateral cooperation
and also at international level it led to the strengthening of Transatlantic
relation tightening the connections between the two peoples. A quarter of a century on from its launch,
Romania and the USA are committed to extending and deepening all the dimensions
of the Strategic Partnership, from the excellent bilateral cooperation in terms
of security and defence to the fields of economy, energy security, education
and human relations, a communiqué by the Presidential Administration says.

According to the same sources, the solidity of the Strategic
Partnership with the USA has been recently proved by the latest announcement of
President Biden on beefing up the US military presence in Romania. The war
Russia is presently waging on Ukraine and its severe consequences at
international level and in key sectors has made us to take action together,
more united than ever, in order to find solutions at the bilateral or the Euro-Atlantic
level in order to consolidate and protect the values, security and the
resilience of our societies, the head of the Romanian state has also said.

Developing the Strategic Partnership with the USA in all its cooperation
domains has become a priority of Romania’s, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has
said. The tight and significant cooperation in the field of security and
defence has been permanently consolidated being a vital component of the
Strategic Partnership between the USA and Romania and its relevance has been
highlighted more significantly against the illegal, unprovoked and unjustified
Russian invasion in Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest said in a
message.

(bill)