ForMin Aurescu says Romania deeply interested in moving away from defiance, confrontation

Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Tuesday that in the Romanian-Hungarian relationship "a climate of trust and mutual respect" needs to be restored, calling for "restraint and discernment."      "Romania is deeply interested in moving away from a logic of defiance and confrontation and we propose to create the premises for shaping a constructive, modern, civilised, pragmatic, European Romanian-Hungarian relationship. We need to restore a climate of trust and mutual respect in the bilateral relationship. We have a very good relationship that we built a long time ago, so that we can give the bilateral relationship a trajectory that fits our strategic partnership. We want a positive approach of the relationship with Hungary, as good neighbours. We want to act together on the basis of the principles of the 1996 political treaty, on the basis of the 2002 declaration of the Romanian-Hungarian strategic partnership for 21st Century Europe. That is why we have called for restrain and discernment and pleaded - especially in the current context marked by the harmful effects of the COVID-19 crisis affecting all citizens of our countries - for full and genuine involvement in building a good neighbourly relationship of a genuine strategic partnership," Aurescu told a joint news conference with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto.    He said he had a "very substantial" discussion on the bilateral relationship. He also specified that, "despite the tense moments that have taken place lately," the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs "has refrained from reacting," aiming to de-escalate those moments. At the same time, Aurescu underscored that "a logic of partnership" avoids escalation "at any cost, and especially in critical moments."      "This is a visit that is taking place in a sensitive period of this bilateral relationship, and, as I confessed to the Minister, I was reluctant at first to organise this visit now, because we are ten days away from the day of the signing of the Treaty of Trianon, June 4, which has different meanings for Romania and Hungary. Also, recently there have been a number of tense moments in the bilateral relationship. And this is also an exceptional context as a state of alert is in force in Romania," said Aurescu.      He called for "the avoidance of unjustified deterioration of the bilateral relationship" and the "development of natural good neighbourly relations" in which dialogue and mutual respect prevail.      "A first concrete signal of the Hungarian side's desire to adopt a constructive attitude in our country is that in the period immediately ahead - as I told the Minister candidly is for the Hungarian officials on Romania's soil not to give public remarks running contrary to the spirit of our strategic partnership, in such a way as to respect the logic of this strategic partnership, of the basic political treaty, while showing respect for the constitutional order in Romania. Any such remarks in the context of the current time that marks the anniversary or the commemoration of the Treaty of Trianon before June 4 will lead to the deterioration of the bilateral relationship and we do not want that," Aurescu emphasised.      According to him, during the talks, the significance of June 4 was also addressed, explaining that to Romania "The Treaty of Trianon means only the legal consecration at the level of international relations of the action of truly primordial importance of the December 1, 1918 Greater Union by the exercise of the right to self-determination of the Romanian nation, which to Romania signifies the main moment of reference in the creation of the modern unitary state.      "We do not call into question the sovereign right of Hungary to establish ways of celebrating or commemorating significant historical events for the Hungarian state and people, only that for us this moment has a different meaning. It is a secondary meaning to the significance of December 1, 1918. Therefore, a different interpretation of historical facts is possible, but it is necessary to overcome the confrontation generated by this different interpretation of historical facts, looking forward to the future in the spirit of the 21st century, to co-operate in a modern, pragmatic European spirit for present and future generations," said Aurescu. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)