Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume XX, Eastern Europe

218. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Romania¹

Washington, October 4, 1979, 0343Z

259744. Subject: Vance-Andrei Bilateral at the UNGA: Bilateral Issues.

1. (C-entire text)

2. Summary. Secretary Vance met with Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei in New York on October 2 for approximately 50 minutes. Andrei was accompanied by UN Ambassador Teodor Marinescu, Special Assistant Marcel Ghibernea, and First Secretary Ion Goritza (interpreter). US participants were Counselor Nimetz, Senior Advisor to the Secretary Philip Habib, Assistant Secretary Maynes, EUR Deputy Assistant Secretary Barry, and EUR/EE Director Schmidt (notetaker). On bilateral matters, Andrei said Ceausescu was satisfied with the continued development of our relations. He raised only two bilateral issues—further expedited issuance of US export licenses and access to Norfolk for Romanian ships loading Virginia coal—and requested the Secretary’s personal support on both. The Secretary’s planned visit to Bucharest was discussed briefly and the Secretary said he wished to propose firm dates in December within the coming week. Multilateral issues discussed (see septels)² included CSCE, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Romanian UNGA initiative on peaceful settlement of disputes. End summary.

3. Andrei said he had been requested by President Ceausescu to extend his greetings to President Carter and express his satisfaction with the continued development of US-Romanian relations both in the bilateral and international spheres. The positive developments were consistent with the 1977 [1978] Joint Declaration,³ and were in the interest of both countries and of worldwide peace. The Secretary noted that the President wished to extend his greetings to Andrei and to President Ceausescu and to stress our desire to work with Romania on bilateral matters and on solving pressing international problems.

4. Secretary’s visit. Secretary Vance said he looked forward to visiting Bucharest and would ask his staff to work out proposed dates within the coming week for a visit either at the beginning of December or immediately after a meeting he would attend in Brussels later that month. Andrei said he was authorized by Ceausescu to fix the visit at any time except during the November 10–25 period. He explained that Ceausescu wished to meet with the Secretary during his visit but would be busy with the Romanian Party Congress during the period he had specified in November. Andrei said he was certain the Secretary’s visit would contribute significantly to US-Romanian relations and to bilateral cooperation on international issues. He proposed, and the Secretary agreed, that an important area for an extensive exchange of views during the visit would be the “new economic order” and other North-South issues.

5. Trade and export licenses. Andrei said he had only two bilateral matters to raise with the Secretary. Both were economic and on each he wished to request the Secretary’s personal support. The first was the matter of US export licenses. For the first months of 1979, the US had enjoyed an active balance of trade with Romania, and his government did not see this as a problem. (Nimetz noted that in 1978, Romania had enjoyed a trade surplus with the US, which had aroused some questions during the congressional review of MFN.) On the other hand, Andrei said, he requested the Secretary’s continued support in efforts to expedite the issuance of US export licenses. Romania was grateful for what had been done already in this regard, in the spirit of President Carter’s letter to President Ceausescu, and would like to see these efforts continue. Andrei indicated that a list of pending license requests would soon be transmitted to Counselor Nimetz via the Romanian Embassy. In response to the Secretary’s query concerning the status of this question Nimetz said the problem had been more in the length of time required to process license applications rather than in large-scale denials of licenses. The executive branch had made serious efforts to expedite processing of applications, and good results had been achieved. He indicated that we were well disposed to continue these efforts. He said there had been no recent requests from Romanian Embassy here to expedite specific applications, but we would be glad to act on such a list when it was received.

6. Access to Port of Norfolk. Noting that he had already discussed the question with Nimetz and Assistant Secretary Vest,⁴ Andrei explained his interest in an arrangement which would permit Romanian ships to load coal at the Port of Norfolk. He said that the Romanian contract for purchases of coal from Island Creek, Virginia, called for long-term deliveries, perhaps extending as much as 50 years. The inability of Romanian ships to load the coal at Norfolk already added some $2 million per year to their costs. Andrei stressed that Romania was ready to accept whatever conditions or controls the US might want to place on its ships in order to gain access to Norfolk.⁵

7. Nimetz noted that we already had carefully examined this problem in response to earlier Romanian requests. As a result, he was more pessimistic about this problem than about US export licenses. The port security regulations extended to all Warsaw Pact countries and had been in effect for some twenty years. Secretary Vance said he could readily see how it would be more costly to ship the coal by rail from the mine to Baltimore rather than directly to Hampton Roads. He said that while he could make no promises that a way could be found, he would discuss the Romanian request with Defense Secretary Brown. Andrei expressed appreciation and added that it would be very difficult for Romania to have the coal shipped from Norfolk on non-Warsaw Pact ships, especially since Romania only recently had constructed special cargo ships for this and similar purposes.

Christopher

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, [no film number]. Confidential; Immediate; Exdis. Drafted by Schmidt; cleared by Barry; approved by L. Paul Bremer. Sent for information to USUN.
2. International issues discussed were reported in telegram 260883 to Bucharest, October 5. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D790456–0655) In telegram 262360 to Bucharest and Seoul, October 6, the Department reported that in the course of their bilateral meeting, Andrei informed Vance that, while in Bucharest, the North Korean Prime Minister asked the Romanian Government to inform Washington that Pyongyang’s “public position on the trilateral proposal [a meeting among USG–ROK–DPRK representatives] was not their last word and that they were ready to explore the question further should the USG wish to do so.” (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D790458–0444)
3. The 1978 Joint Declaration agreed on during Ceausescu’s trip to Washington. See footnote 3, Document 204.
4. The conversation among Assistant Secretary Vest, Counselor Nimetz, and Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei, which took place October 1 in Washington was reported on October 4 in telegram 260381 to Bucharest. Andrei stressed the Romanian desire to receive deliveries of the coal purchased in the United States at Hampton Roads (or the Norfolk Harbor) rather than Baltimore. They also discussed the CSCE process and developments in the Middle East. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, [no film number])
5. On June 12, 1977, the Romanian Government signed a multi-year contract with Occidental Petroleum for coal from the Island Creek mine in Virginia. (Telegram 4383 from Bucharest, June 14, 1977; National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D770212–0906) Bucharest sought access to the Hampton Roads port in order to reduce the transportation costs associated with the delivery of coal to Romanian ships. In a conversation with Nimetz on May 7, 1979, Pacoste expressed the hope that the United States would reconsider its access ban of Warsaw Pact vessels to Hampton Roads for Romanian vessels, and that the Romanian Government “would be willing to comply with any restrictions if access can be granted.” (Telegram 2844 from Bucharest, May 10, 1979; National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D790219–0142)