Dragnea: I disagree with throwing Romania into dispute with US

The Chamber of Deputies' Speaker, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said on Monday he does not agree with "throwing" Romania into a dispute with the United States, showing that he will oppose such a situation.

Referring to the joint statement of the European Union on moving the embassies of some member states from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the PSD chairman stated that Romania's diplomatic representative in Brussels had a position of further supporting the peace process, backing and stimulating the continuation of negotiations.

"Do you know whether there has been any vote? My advice is not to launch on the market all sorts of information from the belief that the public is not kept updated and takes only the wrong information from us. There has been no vote there. I understand the mandate he had was a balanced one (...) Where, with whom did President Iohannis consult, with whom did those in uniform, who work for various websites or publications, consult, so as to consider and decide that Romania's best interest is to go public and condemn a US action? Here they have to come up with very clear explanations, given that we are NATO members, we are developing the army endowment, the defense industry, the strategic partnership with the United States, given the geographic position very close to Russia, let them explain to us why Romania must take action to condemn its main and powerful strategic ally, the United States. When we have these explanations clearly assumed and openly explained, not in the spur of the moment, then we can discuss. For Romania to be thrown into a dispute with the US, I do not agree with that. Whoever wants to do that must take responsibility for it and provide explanations," Dragnea said at the end of PSD's National Standing Bureau's meeting.

According to the PSD leader, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has very clear attributions, and the foreign minister sends mandate proposals and assigns tasks to the diplomatic representations of Romania.

"We all hoped that the Basescu era was over. It seems that the Iohannis era is worse than the Basescu era." Romania's Constitution does not provide for a ‘daddy' position. There is the position of president, with some clear attributions, with clear limits in the Constitution We cannot stand indifferent and watch as some adventures generated by the interests of others can put Romania in a situation of confrontation with the United States. I do not accept that and I will do everything in my power to legally, constitutionally and politically prevent such an attitude and position," the PSD chairman said.