Romanian President Traian Basescu signed on Friday a decree of accreditation of Constantin Mihail Grigorie as Ambassador to the Russian Federation, according to a presidency press release. Grigorie went through parliamentary hearings for the job in December last year. Grigorie set as first objective for his term a meeting between the presidents of Russia and Romania before 2009.

Grigorie, who has previously served as Ambassador to Turkey, admitted before MPs in December 2007 that his nomination comes at a moment of difficult relations between Romania and Russia. He said that a presidential-level meeting between Russia and Romania was needed considering that there has been no such meeting for the past ten years.

The presence of Vladimir Putin in Bucharest at the NATO Summit in spring this year may be a good opportunity for such a meeting

Grigorie says the bilateral relations need a new momentum in a pragmatic manner. He also recalled that the first deputy of Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov used to be a colleague of him in the diplomatic corps in Sofia.