Politica externă a României faţă de statele occidentale şi Israel în anii 1960
Romania's Foreign Policy towards the Western States and Israel in the 1960s

Summary/Abstract: Reviving the Romanian foreign policy underwent an unprecedented increase after the declaration of the Romanian Workers' Party's position on issues of international communist movement and workers in April 1964. The document says the Romanian political elite’s autonomy from the Soviet era and marked the distancing of Romania from the Soviet foreign policy, helping to legitimize nationalist leaders in Bucharest. This autonomy was limited; however, it is not any major ideological difference with Moscow. Strengthening political autonomy towards Moscow required achievement of economic autonomy. This purpose could be achieved only under conditions of normalization of relations with the West, which would provide new markets for raw materials and the Romanian products and, especially, access to modern industrial technologies. The timing for launching this policy benefited a favorable international context. In the early '60s, the U.S. launched a new strategy of relations with communist countries, the so-called "building bridges policy”. U.S. policy was designed to give new impetus to the opening with the East, to settle communication channels with the Soviet Union's satellite countries in Eastern Europe and to accelerate the process of European detente. The relevance of the new American political strategy against the East and its long-term impact did not seize as opportunity for politicians in Bucharest. This led to the normalization of relations with Western countries through an unprecedented series of diplomatic actions in the short history of the Romanian communist state until then; Bucharest initiated a comprehensive program of agreements with Western countries.

• Details
• Contents