RECOGNITION OF THE UNION OF BESSARABIA WITH ROMANIA – HISTORICAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ISSUES
RECOGNITION OF THE UNION OF BESSARABIA WITH ROMANIA – HISTORICAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ISSUES

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the recognition of Sfatul Ţării act of 27 March 1918 - the legal basis of the Bessarabia union with Romania - in international law, by the states who signed the 1920 Peace Treaty of Paris and by the Soviet Russia/Soviet Union. The final agreement of France, United Kingdom and Italy has been made possible because of a very active Romanian diplomacy and of some extreme measures like maintaining military troops in Hungary or abstaining from intervention in Soviet Russia even if the Western Powers insisted on this matter. US and Japan who did not sign and/or ratify the 1920 Peace Treaty of Paris did not refuse explicitly the recognition of the Bessarabia union with Romania. The Soviet Union recognition was de facto accomplished (at least according to the interpretation of the circumstances) after this country signed in 1933, together with Romania and other states, the Convention for definition of aggression. The absence of de jure recognition from the international community cannot lead to the conclusion that Bessarabia union with Romania has not been done according to the international law. As this paper shows, Bessarabia proclaimed its autonomy inside the Russian empire, then its independence and the union with Romania, in full respect of the self-determination principle.

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