Romania's top foreign policy priority is to join Schengen in April 2011, Romanian President Traian Basescu declared at the annual reunion of Romanian diplomats in Bucharest on Wednesday. He underlined that he sensed there would be some problems when the Justice report on Romania was published by the EC. Basescu said that Romania would have to make a diplomatic effort for Romania to join Schengen in April 2011. And he said that the attempts of other states to link issues related to the Rroma people with Romania's intention to join Schengen are unfair.

Basescu also spoke of relations with the Republic of Moldova, a country which he said should not remain in a gray area. And on Russia he said it was a relationship with ups and downs given that "sometimes we have diverging interests". He said he would not exclude the possibility that tensions with Russia lately be the result of Romania's stand on the Republic of Moldova.

​Other declarations

  • our diplomacy did not manage to bring to Romania the energy regulation Agency ; I do not want such incidents 
  • we started to gather allies for the vote when the competitors already had their votes secured. As far as I know, a new agency will be set up next year and Romania must make a serious offer to attract it to Bucharest 
  • a powerful diplomatic action is needed for the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Justice; the mechanism needs to be ended by the end of 2011; let's impose such an objective 
  • all ambassadors to EU member states need to understand that Romania has vital interests in the future EU budget for 2013-2020; we aim to maintain the common agriculture policy at least 
  • Romania has every interest to maintain the cohesion policy at the level of the EU. So, we have two main interests: the common agriculture policy and the cohesion policy which need to be maintained in the EU budget for 2013-2020 
  • diplomats from EU capital cities know that talks have already started, at least internally 
  • We will have to consolidate our strategic partnerships we have within the EU with France and Poland; the partnerships already have implementation mechanisms 
  • the four priorities of our country: joining Schengen in 2011, to have the cooperation and verification mechanism waived by the end of 2011, to maintain the common agriculture policy and the cohesion policy in the 2013-2020 budget. 
  • on September 14, at Baku, we will sign a common declaration between four states to finish the Nabucco project. This is not a competitor for South Stream, but a new alternative to the existent solution 
  • The project cannot become reality if it will not benefit from a common effort 

Relationship with the US

  • we negotiate the agreement to set up the anti missile shield 
  • we need to finish it before the NATO Summit at Lisbon 
  • Romania is satisfied with the changes introduced, which include Romania on the anti missile shield map 
  • Romanian troops ended their mission in Iraq and Romania was the second last country that left Iraq
  • American investments increased and Romania has very strong ties with the US 

Neighbourhood relations

  • Romania needs a secure, peaceful area in the South. This is the only way we can avoid conflicts in the Balkans 

Relations with the Republic of Moldova

  • it was a difficult relation during the mandate of President Voronin but today, Moldova is lead by democratic leaders who wish to join the EU 
  • We make every effort - transparent and open - to maintain this leadership 
  • We have the obligation towards Moldovan citizens to help their country 
  • Romania's diplomacy must sustain Moldova 

Relation with the Romanian diaspora

  • In the last two years, things improved: we have more consulates open and we will open even more
  • there are 3 million Romanians working abroad 
  • we will have to offer an extra case to the relation each diplomat has with Romanian communities; this is one of Romania's foreign policy priorities 

Relation with Russia: it is a relation with leaps and bounds

  • We need to be consistent on two aspects: we need to have ways to cooperate and we need to respect each other
  • Sometimes we have different interests: we want Nabucco to become a reality, they do not want it - for this, there has to be no tension 
  • We are interested to attract Russian investors in Romania 
  • I urge you to make every effort to explain that Romania is not hostile to Russia but we have certain security and energy interests which we want to follow 

Relation with the Middle East

  • I have many meetings with local leaders in the last year and we plan to revive relations with arab states and strenghten our partnership with Israel 

Relation with China

  • we try to convince the Chinese government that it can trust us 
  • China requested a list of Romania's main projects and we hope to re-start our relation with China at the economic level because at the political level, we are very close 
  • We need to convince states to invest in Romania