Traian Băsescu criticizes Romania’s policy toward the USA: “We have not had any policy toward the United States in recent years, since 2004. We have only had the policy of a fool”

Former President Traian Băsescu criticized Romania’s policy toward the United States on Thursday evening, saying it had lacked a coherent strategy and had focused excessively on arranging meetings with Donald Trump. The statements were made on B1 TV and reported by News.ro.

Băsescu claimed that Romania may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on visits to Mar-a-Lago, photographs with the former American president, and contracts with lobbying firms, instead of strengthening its institutional relationship with the United States. In his view, Bucharest should have developed ongoing contacts with members of the U.S. Congress, both from the House of Representatives and the Senate.

“I am neither mysterious nor ironic: we have not had any policy toward the United States in recent years, since 2004. We have only had the policy of a fool who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to Mar-a-Lago and take pictures with some kind of Trump cutout or try lobbying firms to replace the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have not had any policy. Normally, if President Trump was not accessible to us, we should have strengthened our relationship with the United States Congress, whether it involved meetings with people from the House of Representatives or the Senate, and continued building it. We simply fixated on this idea: we want our president to meet with Trump,” Traian Băsescu stated.

The former head of state also rejected the idea that Romania should choose between the Republicans’ and Democrats’ camps depending on which party was in power. He stated that Romania’s partner is America, not a particular president or party.

Băsescu also said that the bilateral relationship should not be built around a single presidential meeting, but through a consistent foreign policy and strengthened ties with American institutions.