68. Letter From President Reagan to Romanian President Ceausescu1
I welcome the opportunity of maintaining high-level discussions by having Secretary of Commerce Baldrige visit Romania for the meeting of the Joint Economic Commission, May 14–15.
During the past five years, trade between our two countries has more than doubled from $450 million to $1.1 billion. Yet, there is room for further development. Secretary Baldrige is prepared to discuss with you and your representatives ways in which we can improve upon an already well-established trade relationship.2
Let me also take this occasion to thank you for your letter of April 2 on the Madrid meeting of the signatories of the Helsinki Final Act. Your views are particularly helpful. I can assure you that the United States remains fully committed to the CSCE process, as Ambassador Kampelman’s recent visit demonstrated.3
We are looking forward to the visit of Foreign Minister Andrei.4 This will be the first opportunity for my Administration to review with your government the full range of bilateral issues and international questions of mutual concern to us. Secretary of State Haig will take full advantage of this visit to share with Minister Andrei my views on the central international issues of the day.
We continue to support efforts to establish firm criteria for a conference on the military aspects of security in Europe. To be meaningful, the confidence building measures which may come out of such a conference must be militarily significant, verifiable, and carry a high degree of political obligation. We also continue to hold firmly to the position that these criteria must apply to the whole of Europe, including the Soviet territory up to the Urals.
Progress in the security field must be balanced by other concerns, such as human rights. The United States remains interested in Romania fulfilling obligations undertaken in the Helsinki Final Act.
I trust that you continue to believe, as I do, that the Polish people must be allowed to resolve their own problems. Disturbance of the [Page 223] peace in Poland by outsiders would seriously affect the entire range of East-West relations. The American people are grateful for your efforts to promote those relations through better understanding.
Thank you, again, for your letter. As we continue to exchange views and information we will strengthen the stability of peace in our world.
Sincerely,
- Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Head of State File, Romania: President Ceausescu (8101689) (1). No classification marking.↩
- May 14–15. See footnote 3, Document 76.↩
- Max Kampelman was head of the U.S. Delegation to the Madrid CSCE Review Conference.↩
- See Documents 72 and 73.↩