European diplomats have not been accustomed to Romania taking its own initiative on political issues, but the situation has begun to change over the last few months.
This was clear when Bucharest became one of the most vocal EU governments to advocate forwarding Serbia's accession application at the foreign ministers meeting in October.
Romanian president Traian Basescu has publicly criticised parts of Europe's security strategies and repeated his concerns to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's secretary general, on a visit to the Brussels headquarters on 28 October. After decades of mutual indifference, Bucharest is also now lobbying the EU on Moldova's behalf. Mr Basescu has even publicly supported Turkey‘s bid to join the EU, which France and, to a lesser degree, Germany want to stop.
In the two decades following the fall of Communism, Romanian diplomacy was characterised by passivity and a lack of initiative; relations with its sister country Moldova were the most obvious example. Under former president Ion Iliescu, an ex-Communist leader who re-converted after 1989 into a social democrat, Romania shunned all possibility of influencing politics in Moldova. Moldova rapidly fell under Russian influence again, culminating in a mini-cold war between the two countries that ended only after the current pro-European coalition came to power last year in Chisinau.
With 22 million inhabitants, Romania is the second largest Eastern European EU member in terms of both population and surface. But until recently it has practiced an extremely low-key foreign policy within the union, trying to strike a balance with the US at the same time. In 2004, Mr Basescu famously spoke of his plans for an "axis Washington-London-Bucharest."
Romania joined nearly all the recent controversial US initiatives, including sending troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, and agreeing to host an American anti-missile shield (currently on hold) on its territory.
News source: Waz.euobserver.com link: article
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