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Social Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea said Monday evening that Romania's relationship with the United States is "very good" from Romania's perspective, but just "pretty good" from the US point of view, while "the concrete economic and strategic benefits for Romania are not very high."
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Asked during a show aired by Antena 3 broadcaster about the planned move of Romania's embassy to Jerusalem, Dragnea said that "this is a huge subject, a high-level foreign policy subject."
Dragnea said that the talk is about two powerful states, Israel and the US, "about our right to decide where to place our embassy in a state", also pointing out President Iohannis's on the fence attitude, as he doesn't clearly express disagreement and his implicit support for the US and Israel's stance, but neither voices agreement and siding with the EU. "The EU has not adopted a commonly accepted position. (...) At this time Israel is in acute need for friends, true friends. True friends are those who come to one's aid in important moments. Our relationship with Israel is very good, but the potential is huge, and the potential benefits for Romania are tremendous," said the PSD leader.
In this context, Dragnea termed Romania's relationship with the US as "pretty good, not good".
"Our relationship with the United States is pretty good, not good. From our point of view, it's very good, from their standpoint, it's pretty good. This means that the US embassy in Romania has a certain message, a certain rhetoric and approach, but the administration in [Washington] has seemingly a different approach. But when we draw the line, the concrete economic and strategic benefits for Romania are not very high. On the other hand, to Romania the US represents a huge security guarantee we are not allowed to play with," Dragnea said.
AGERPRES .
