[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5500-H5502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY H.E. EMIL CONSTANTINESCU, PRESIDENT OF 
                                ROMANIA

  President CONSTANTINESCU. Mr. Speaker, Honorable Senators and 
Representatives, Ladies and Gentlemen: Thank you for your warm welcome.
  It is a rare honor to be able to address those who make the laws of 
the United States, the laws of the country of freedom, and who stand as 
guardians of fundamental human rights in the United States and all over 
the world.
  Throughout its history, your country has been a beacon of hope for 
the oppressed and the needy, a source of inspiration for the creative, 
the courageous and the achieving. It has always been, and may it ever 
remain, the land of the free and the home of the brave.
  Romania and the United States have a strong and growing relationship. 
We are linked to the United States by technology, know-how and capital. 
We are joined by hundreds of thousands of Romania's sons and daughters, 
people who came to this country over the years and whose descendants 
now live in every corner of your magnificent land. But ever more 
importantly, Romanians have always sent to America their most cherished 
treasure: Their hopes for freedom.
  We call America the Land of Freedom because this has been its guiding 
principle, as well as a source of inspiration to other countries around 
the world. But the term ``Land of Freedom'' stands also for a virtual 
community of like-minded and like-hearted people all over the world who 
believe in the defense of liberty, of human rights, and of human 
dignity. People of all races and backgrounds and religions are welcomed 
to join.
  Regardless of where they live on the globe, people who believe in 
freedom are citizens of the virtual Land of Freedom. Since the fall of 
Communism, its numbers have grown steadily and enthusiastically. Since 
1989, 23 million Romanians are among the proudest members.
  Your Founding Fathers have written: When a long train of abuses and 
usurpation evinces a design to reduce people under absolute despotism, 
it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and 
to provide new guards for their future security. This is what the 
Romania people have done.
  My country threw off the yoke of Communism in 1989, and in 1996, it 
achieved its first fully democratic transfer of power. As President of 
a fully democratic Romania, I bring you the greetings and the hopes of 
my fellow citizens. It is their desire to live in the Land of Freedom 
alongside you and all other people who value freedom, human rights and 
human dignity. This desire has brought me to America and to this 
historic Chamber today.
  In the new global order, this Land of Freedom spans the globe from 
West to East and from North to South.

                              {time}  1015

  It is an expansive land of constantly changing landscape and with 
ever-changing contours. Its elusive borders are defined by each and 
every individual who is willing to defend liberty, property, and 
respect the rule of law.
  But in such an ever-changing landscape, people need anchors to keep 
steady and stable in a sea of change. As the messenger of the Romanian 
people, I am here to tell you that my country can and wants to be 
exactly that, an anchor of stability in the sometimes storm-ridden sea 
of southeastern Europe. But for that anchor to keep steady, we need the 
acknowledgment and support of the United States of America.
  We, the people of Romania, think we have earned it. Even as Romania 
was dragged into World War II by the Nazi regime, 6,000 Romanian 
citizens joined countless Romanian Americans to serve proudly in the 
United States Army, seeing action in the Pacific and North Africa. Some 
of these veterans are here today. On behalf of the Romanian people, I 
salute you. In defiance of the country's unfortunate war alliance, more 
than 1,400 American pilots and soldiers were sheltered by the Romanian 
people, people who refused to see the Americans as enemies, and who 
insisted on seeing them as defenders of freedom.
  During the 1950s and 1960s, hundreds of thousands of my countrymen 
were being thrown in concentration camps and jails, tortured and killed 
only because they refused to yield their freedom. Farmers were jailed 
because they would not allow their land to be confiscated. Priests were 
tortured when they refused to forsake their beliefs. Intellectuals were 
sent to camps because they chose to defend freedom and democracy.
  In all the eastern and Central European countries, the armed 
resistance against communism lasted longest in Romania. Romania's 
freedom fighters were thousands of anti-Communist guerilla fighters who 
operated in the Carpathian mountains, including one in my childhood 
village. The last members were not subdued until 1961. The terrible 
dramas of those death-sunken times, of suffering and humiliation, were, 
and perhaps still are, sealed off in silence and oblivion. Romanians 
paid a terrible price for their fierce refusal to surrender their 
freedom. Romania was subjected to the harshest totalitarian 
dictatorship in the region: The regime of the dictator Nicolae 
Ceausescu.
  And yet, in 1989, Romanians summoned the courage to rise up against 
that dictatorship: Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, 
defying Ceausescu's tanks and troops. Bare-chested young people 
chanted: ``We shall die, but we shall be free''. Over 12,000 of them 
paid dearly with their lives, and thousands more were injured during 
the anti-Communist revolution in Romania, the only country in central 
and Eastern Europe to have paid in blood the price of its freedom. 
Please allow me here, in this temple of democracy and of freedom, to 
pay homage to all the Romanians, known or unknown, who have suffered 
and died for liberty, and, indeed, to all people who fight in its 
cause, anywhere in the world.
  I am here today as the representative of a free, Democratic and proud 
Romania. I am here to tell you that you may always count on us to be 
vigilant guardians of the Democratic values we share with you, the 
values we have fought so hard to regain.
  But it is not enough to have freedom. Freedom must be maintained and 
defended on a constant basis. I feel the best way to meet this 
challenge is by working together in cooperative partnerships with other 
nations. For I think that all of those who believe in freedom ought to 
have the means to defend their beliefs, together. Romania was the first 
country to join the United States in its Partnership For Peace, and my 
fellow citizens have now invested their hopes in one day joining an 
expanded NATO.
  Some of you have strongly supported the enlargement of NATO to 
include Romania. For that we are grateful. Others have a less positive 
view, especially of a so-called ``second wave'' of expansion. I respect 
your right to differ. But as the first Central European

[[Page H5501]]

head of state to address you since the congressional debate over NATO 
expansion, I want to say how deeply I admire the role of the United 
States Congress in making this historic decision. The expansion of NATO 
is a visionary undertaking, a milestone in the history of Europe and 
the world.
  I hope you see it in the same way. As a geologist, I have learned 
that, while painfully climbing a mountain peak, without being able to 
see it from afar, you might fail to grasp its greatness. As a 
president, I have noticed that many a time debates and arguments 
prevent us from spotting, in a storm of events, the ones which will 
defy eternity. As an ordinary person who thinks about his fate, as well 
as the fate of his people and the Eastern European peoples, I have 
understood the tremendous force of an idea at work.
  For more than 1,000 years, the borders of Europe have been drawn or 
changed by war, dictate or external pressure. Since the Second World 
War, NATO has succeeded in maintaining peace in, and for, Western 
Europe, and fostering well-being and progress in the nations that share 
its mission. At the same time, in Europe's Communist east, old 
conflicts laid frozen while new ones kept emerging. When the Berlin 
Wall collapsed at last, the peoples of the east won their freedom, but 
not the ability to put it to use together.
  In this new and traumatic historical adventure, transition from 
totalitarian regimes to democracy and from centrally planned economies 
to a market economy, the idea of joining NATO did not merely grow out 
of a need to be a part of a defensive military alliance. As a vector of 
a set of fundamental values of modern civilization, it has become the 
supreme expression capable of harnessing the major goal of human 
solidarity. Issues that had seemed impossible to solve, both within and 
between the various Eastern European countries, can now find a solution 
through joint Democratic exercise that has replaced the harsh logic of 
confrontation by dialogue and cooperation.
  Let us imagine for just one moment the European stage after the fall 
of communism, had NATO gotten frozen in its original project, leaving 
the east of Europe prey to violence and chaos. What would there have 
been left of Eastern Europe, save for ruins, and how long would it have 
lasted before Western Europe and then maybe the United States itself 
had lapsed into the grip of antagonisms?
  Now that freedom has come to the people of Eastern Europe, we aspire 
to take the next step and join a community of nations bound together by 
freedom, human dignity and prosperity. We welcome the chance to share 
our part of the burden of securing a peaceful future for all of Europe. 
But to do that, we need your help.
  In many ways this moment is as crucial to the future of Europe as 
were the years after World War II that first gave birth to NATO itself. 
Your country undertook, with great wisdom and vision, the 
responsibility of world balance and world peace. We urge you to do so 
again. Romania does not seek to add to this historic burden, but to 
share it, modestly, yet reliably, as a trusted ally and friend. In 
order to build a fully prosperous, Democratic and stable Europe, one 
that stretches from the Atlantic to the Urals and beyond, the United 
States needs to anchor its policies to countries on Europe's 
southeastern flank that share its Democratic ideas and its commitment 
to the region's stability.

  Romania is such a country. I would even go so far as to say that 
Romania is a key to stability in the southern part of Europe. It is a 
bold statement, I know, but one that is supported by three important 
factors.
  First, Romania is the second largest country in the region and 
centrally located in a place of strategic importance to the security of 
the entire area. We are truly a crossroads for many diverse cultures 
and civilizations, western secular, Southern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox 
and Muslim. Many observers have said conflicts seem almost inevitable, 
given Romania's ethnic patchwork and complex border situation.
  Still, we have managed to avoid conflict, both within and along our 
borders, and to successfully find political solutions to all 
potentially divisive ethnic and external issues. Today, for example, 
the Hungarian ethnic minority is part of the governing majority. The 
sensitive issues of the relations with the Republic of Moldova and the 
Ukraine have been resolved without tension. Religious minorities are 
developing an increasing dialogue with the Orthodox majority. Romania's 
social peace is proof that when a democracy is firmly rooted, its 
institutions can weather the storms of social reform.

                              {time}  1030

  So the strength of our internal democracy is the first reason we are 
so important to regional stability.
  Second, we have strong diplomatic and political ties with all 
countries in the area. For example, through goodwill and constant 
effort on the part of both countries, Romania has reached an historic 
agreement with Hungary to bring long-sought reconciliation between our 
two nations. The strength of this grassroots reconciliation has been 
successfully tested many times this past year. Recently, both our 
Hungarian minority and all Romanians were able to freely and peaceably 
commemorate the historic events of the 1848 democratic revolutions, 
when our two countries unfortunately fought against one another. We 
have concluded a sound treaty with the Ukraine, which provides for the 
mutual protection of our ethnic minorities and starts many common 
projects.
  Romania's three-party agreements with Poland and the Ukraine, the 
Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, and Bulgaria and Turkey, and soon 
with Greece and Bulgaria, and Hungary and Austria, as well as the 
excellent relations with all the Balkan countries, the Baltic States, 
and, naturally, Russia, are tokens of our contribution to the regional 
security architecture, in a zone still marked by simmering conflicts.
  Third, Romania is a key to stability in the region because it is at 
the crossroads of the two largest Euro-Asian trade routes known for 
thousands of years: the East-West one, known as the ``the Silk Road,'' 
running from China to Spain, and the North-South one, ``the Amber 
Road,'' from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea. These roads will 
find a new meaning in the global world of the third millennium. It is 
particularly the ``Silk Road'' project, which will tie Japan and China 
to Central Asia and Caucasian countries, Southeastern and Central 
Europe to Western Europe, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, that will 
most likely evolve into the biggest challenge of the early third 
millennium. Last week, I met with the presidents of Azerbaijan and 
Georgia to discuss the role our countries can play in securing the 
central tier of this vast trading route.
  United States participation in this great effort is crucial. Not only 
does the United States lend tremendous credibility to such an 
undertaking, but it also helps ensure that future trade will be 
conducted in a stable region secured by open and cooperative Democratic 
structures. Ethnic conflict arises because of a major deficit of 
democracy, invariably triggered in our part of the world by the 
representatives of the old Communist structures, unwilling or unable to 
fit in the new context and to give up former privileges. Indeed, 
national-communism is not a residue but the ultimate expression of 
communism itself, with all its stock of hatred, grafted on the demons 
of chauvinistic nationalism. One of the admirable gestures of American 
democracy lies in its assuming, alongside Europe, moral responsibility 
for the Holocaust. Meditating upon this example helps us understand 
that we all have the imprescriptible duty to be alert to any 
chauvinistic, anti-Semitic and aggressive deviation. Because aggressive 
hatred is like plague; it may recur anytime. It is in Romania's 
interest to contribute to Southeastern Europe's becoming a region where 
different modern, open societies coexist peacefully, a region where 
democracy, tolerance, freedom and human rights are at home. I believe 
this to be in America's interest as well.
  I would like to relate to you what Romanian opinion polls have 
repeatedly shown for the last several years, namely, that the Romanian 
people consider the United States to be our most reliable partner. 
There is, between our people, an underlying closeness of our souls. One 
sign of this, I believe, was the outpouring of enthusiasm that welcomed 
President Clinton to Bucharest

[[Page H5502]]

last summer. Another more fundamental sign is the ongoing effort to 
build the closest possible strategic partnership between our country 
and the United States.
  Romania is fully committed to forming and nurturing this special 
partnership. Democracy can only flourish in Romania and we can only 
become a more positive influence in the region if our role as a 
stabilizing force is acknowledged and supported by the United States 
and its allies. Romania is living proof that Eastern and Southeastern 
Europe are not doomed to a life of conflict. But we all have the duty 
to be on guard against hatred in any form.
  Over the past year, Romania has proved that the occasional political 
storm matters less than having a sound political foundation that allows 
us to weather those storms. We have also learned that despite our 
profound and unflinching commitment to privatization and economic 
reform, it will be more difficult to rebuild the Romanian economy than 
we or our friends expected. We understand the need to balance our 
eagerness for speedy reform with the need to maintain social stability. 
We have been able to do this so far. Again, this is a tribute to our 
democratic institutions and the commitment of our people to those 
institutions. The next step is to speed up privatization while 
maintaining our social equilibrium.
  All of these efforts, building the society, consolidating democratic 
institutions, reforming the economy, our contribution to the security 
of Eastern Europe would be more difficult without your assistance. But 
I can assure you they are well worth your efforts, as they do so much 
to advance peace and stability in such a vital part of the world.
  As a representative of the American people, I want to thank you on 
behalf of my country for the friendship and help the United States has 
shown us.
  The land of freedom, the land I spoke about a few minutes ago, is a 
unique place. It belongs to those who are willing to sacrifice for its 
attainment and its defense. It is a land your Founding Fathers 
conceived and the one envisioned by our own patriotic thinkers and 
fighters. It is the land of your brave military men and women, as it is 
the land of Romania's soldiers who volunteered to go to Albania, 
Angola, the Persian Gulf and Bosnia, in any country where peace is 
under attack. It is our challenge together, as allies and partners, to 
build the bridges to the next millennium from the Danube to the 
Potomac, from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean and beyond, wherever 
people believe in and fight for freedom.
  I would like to close with a true story. One hundred and fifty years 
ago, a young Romanian who had fought for freedom in the 1848 revolution 
emigrated to America. His name was George Pomutz, which in Romanian 
means ``little tree.'' Once on American soil, he volunteered for 
Lincoln's Army and fought in some of the key battles of the Civil War, 
including Vicksburg and Atlanta. Our ``little tree'' went on to become 
a general in your Army and later an American diplomat, serving in 
Russia, where he helped negotiate the American purchase of Alaska. In 
1944, long after his death, the Romanian community in the United States 
donated money to build a battleship, named for Romanian-American 
General George Pomutz. The ship named for the ``little tree'' served in 
peace and war, always a symbol of strength and vigilance. Over the 
decades, Pomutz' story attests to the common roots shared by our two 
people, the closeness of their souls, their love of freedom and their 
willingness to fight in its defense.
  God bless America. God bless Romania. God bless the land of freedom.

                          ____________________