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Romania Other Western Countries
After the mid-1960s, political, economic, and cultural
ties
also expanded with other Western countries, particularly
Austria,
Britain, France, and Italy. Economic relations with these
countries
were especially important to Romania, and several trade
and jointventure agreements were negotiated.
After the late 1970s, relations with these countries,
as with
the West in general, took a sharp downturn. In particular
relations
with France deteriorated severely. For centuries French
culture had
exercised profound influence on Romania, which viewed
itself as
France's special friend in Eastern Europe. President de
Gaulle's
visit in 1968 reaffirmed this feeling of amity. But during
the
1980s, human rights abuses, the poor performance of
French-Romanian
joint ventures, and unfair Romanian trade practices
(including the
dumping of steel) poisoned the relationship.
Perhaps the most damaging episode in French-Romanian
relations
was a spy scandal in the early 1980s known as the "Tanase
affair."
Virgil Tanase, a dissident Romanian writer, accused the
Romanian
government of mounting a plot to assassinate himself and
another
émigré, Paul Goma. Shortly thereafter, President François
Mitterand
cancelled an official visit to Romania and relations
worsened
rapidly. Romania expelled several French journalists, and
in March
1989, France recalled its ambassador in reaction to the
persecution
of signers of a letter condemning Ceausescu's rule.
Relations with Britain took a similar course.
Optimistic jointventure and trade agreements in the 1970s, including
licenses from
British Aerospace and Rolls-Royce to build sophisticated
aircraft,
were followed in the 1980s by official revulsion for
Ceausescu's
human rights abuses. The British considered withdrawing
their
ambassador from Romania and stripping Ceausescu of an
honorary
British distinction.
Data as of July 1989
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