Romanian President's visit to the United States, the best example of master-servant relationship

Romanian President's visit to the United States, the best example of master-servant relationship

Romanian Head of State, Klaus Werner Johannis, went on a so called "state visit" to the US on August 20th. Based on what we know so far, a week after the visit concluded, we're able to draw a more or less, general conclusion.

First of all, it is worth noticing that our President went to the United States unaccompanied by representatives of the government, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs or some other senior diplomat leading the concerned department of the foreign  ministry, nor by representatives of the Romanian business community or officials representing any Romanian chamber of commerce.

Once in Washington, during the official discussion with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, Romanian Head of State, Johannis promised  the US government to take action in the next following 5 years so as to provide American companies with full access and the right for free exploitation of Romanian resources, notably the natural gas reserves within Romania's Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) from the Black Sea:  THE BIGGEST RESERVES OF NATURAL GAS IN EUROPE AT THE MOMENT, WITH AN ESTIMATED COST OF...OVER 2000 BILLION EUROS!

He also committed himself to modifying the OFFSHORE law, according to the general desire of American companies, thus enabling them to fully enjoy all the benefits associated with these reserves, without having to share it with their Romanian associates, be it private or state owned Romanian companies. That means that the whole quantity of natural gas will be sold by companies or entities based in the United States on third markets, while us, Romanians, continue to pay the highest price for natural gas in Eastern Europe for the natural gas that we currently acquire from the Russian market.

The same Romanian Head of State, Johannis, without the Parliament's knowledge and without the Romanian people's approval, through a referendum, requested that the US move it military bases from Germany here and that's not all....the Romanian side is supposed to cover the expanses associated with the move.

Johannis also committed himself to increasing the country's defense expenditure from 2 to 3% from the GDP, so as to be able to pay for used, second hand American weapons, as well as for new liveries, entirely manufactured by the American defense industry...Again, this was done without a proper consultation with Romanian parliamentarians or defense specialists.

Another issue on the visits' agenda was the "visa waver" program and again, at more than 30 years since the fall of the Communist regime, Romanian citizens willing to visit the US are still being considered "second class citizens" by US consular authorities and have to go through a lengthy process, even though our citizens visiting the US are highly skilled people and not associated with criminality. What is even more outrageous, when a lady, Romanian journalist, asked about lifting the visas for Romanians, Trump's answer came in a rather unpleasant way for the people watching "you'd like that, wouldn't you", he said!

What has our Head of State got in exchange for all these? .... A white cap and, most likely, American support for his re-election for a second term (209 - 2014), given the fact that our country will organize presidential elections in November.

As a general conclusion, a very sad one for me and for those who don't refuse to take reality as it is, is that, as long as our President sells us like cheap merchandise, we're heading for a complete failure and I really don't think that Romanians deserve such a destiny,

Ciprian POP

Secretary General

Romanian Worker's Association