A lost chance for Balkan cooperation? The Romanian view on ‘regional micro-détente’, 1969—75

ABSTRACT

The Soviet-American détente raised many concerns among small states that Cold War bipolarity could be consolidated and that the superpowers’ dialogue was just another form of excluding other countries from having a say in international affairs. In order to neutralise the effects of bipolarity, many European governments advocated in favour of a multilateral détente. This paper argues that a similar process occurred in Eastern Europe and analyses the Romanian proposals for Balkan cooperation in the context of what was called a ‘regional micro-détente’. Bucharest called for a multilateral high-level meeting of all Balkan states with the aim of devising formulas for improving cooperation and limiting the influence of the superpowers in the region. As Romania was engaged in serious divergences with the Soviet Union and also had good relations with the Chinese at the height of the Sino-Soviet polemic, Moscow regarded the Romanian proposals as directed against its interests in the peninsula and opposed it. In spite of its lack of results, the Romanian project demonstrates that the commitment to multilateral détente existed on both sides of the Iron Curtain and reveals the increasing fragmentation of the Communist bloc in the context of détente and the CSCE process.

KEYWORDS:

• Balkans
• Romania
• détente
• cooperation
• Soviet Union

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 29. See also Misha Glenny, The Balkans, 1804–2012: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers (London: Granta Books, 2012).

² Donna J. Klick, ‘A Balkan Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone: Viability of the Regime and Implications for Crisis Management,’ Journal of Peace Research 24 no. 2 (1987): 112.

³ Jussi M. Hanhimäki, ‘Détente in Europe, 1962–1975,’ in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol. 2, Crises and Détente, ed. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 198.

⁴ Kemal H. Karpat, ‘Turkish-Soviet Relations,’ in Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Transition 1950–1974, ed. Kemal H. Karpat (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975), 94–7; and Gökay Bülent, Soviet Eastern Policy and Turkey, 1920–1991: Soviet Foreign Policy, Turkey and Communism (London: Routledge, 2006), 104–5.

⁵ Effie Pedaliu, ‘The US, the Balkans and Detente, 1963–73,’ in The Balkans in the Cold War, ed. Svetozar Rajak, Konstantina E. Botsiou, Eirini Karamouzi, and Evanthis Hatzivassiliou (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 208.

⁶ Kostadin Grozev and Jordan Baev, ‘Bulgaria, Balkan Diplomacy and the Road to Helsinki,’ in Helsinki 1975 and the Transformation of Europe, ed. Oliver Bange and Gottfried Niedhart (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 161.

⁷ 'Pedaliu, 'Balkans and Détente', 207.

⁸ Klick, ‘A Balkan Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone,’ 113.

⁹ Mark Kramer, ‘Declassified Materials from CPSU Central Committee Plenums,’ Cahiers du monde russe 1–2 (1999): 294–5.

¹⁰ Vojtech Mastny and Malcolm Byrne, eds., A Cardboard Castle? An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 (Budapest: CEU Press, 2005), 240.

¹¹ Ibid., 298.

¹² Mark Kramer, ‘Ukraine and the Soviet-Czechoslovak Crisis of 1968 (Part II): New Evidence from the Ukrainian Archives,’ Cold War International History Project Bulletin 14–15 (2003–4), 321.

¹³ Lavinia Betea, Cristina Diac, Florin-Răzvan Mihai and Ilarion Ţiu, 21 August 1968. Apoteoza lui Ceauşescu (Iaşi: Editura Polirom, 2009), 167–8.

¹⁴ Amir Weiner, ‘Déjà Vu All Over Again: Prague Spring, Romanian Summer and Soviet Autumn on the Soviet Western Frontier,’ Contemporary European History 15, no. 2 (2006): 171.

¹⁵ 'Pedaliu, 'Balkans and Détente', 206.

¹⁶ Betea et al., Apoteoza lui Ceaușescu, 167–8.

¹⁷ Mihai Retegan, 1968. Din primăvară până în toamnă (Bucureşti: Editura RAO, 1998), 218.

¹⁸ Jordan Baev, ‘The Establishment of Bulgarian–West German Diplomatic Relations within the Coordinating Framework of the Warsaw Pact,’ Journal of Cold War Studies 18, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 159.

¹⁹ Spyridon Sfetas, ‘The Bulgarian-Yugoslav Dispute over the Macedonian Question as a Reflection of the Soviet-Yugoslav Controversy (1968–1980),’ Balcanica, XLIII (2012): 243–4.

²⁰ Ibid.

²¹ Notă referitor: acțiuni neguvernamentale de colaborare pe plan balcanic în 24 April 1969, Arhivele Naționale ale României [National Archives of Romania] – onwards ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Chancellery, dossier no. 62/1969, ff. 11–5.

²² Mioara Anton, ed., România și Tratatul de la Varșovia. Conferințele miniștrilor Afacerilor Externe și ale adjuncților lor 1966–1991 (Bucharest: Editura Alpha MDN, 2009), 124.

²³ Stenograma primirii de către tovarășul Nicolae Ceaușescu, secretar general al CC al PCR, a primului ministru al Republicii Turcia, Suleyman Demirel, 14 September 1967 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 73/1967, ff. 12.

²⁴ Principalele aspecte ale relațiilor dintre România și Turcia, 26 August 1975 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 149/1975, ff. 31–3.

²⁵ Notă de propuneri referitor: invitarea în RS România a ministrului supleant al afacerilor externe al Greciei, Ch. Xanthopoulos-Palamas, 15 June 1972 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Chancellery, dossier no. 73/1972, ff. 53–4.

²⁶ Elena Dragomir, ‘The Perceived Threat of Hegemonism in Romania during the Second Détente,’ Cold War History 12, no. 1 (2012): 124.

²⁷ Notă de convorbire, 11 December 1973 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 283/1973, ff. 23.

²⁸ Stenograma discuţiilor avute cu ocazia primirii de către tovarăşul Nicolae Ceauşescu a ing. Sayed Marei, prim-secretar al Comitetului Central al Uniunii Socialiste Arabe din Republica Arabă Egipt, 9 March 1973 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 24/1973, ff. 23.

²⁹ Dennis Deletant and Mihail E. Ionescu, Romania and the Warsaw Pact, 1955–1989: Selected Documents (Bucharest: Politeia-SNSPA, 2004), 86.

³⁰ Stenograma convorbirilor purtate cu prilejul vizitei de prietenie a tovarăşului Iosip Broz Tito în Republica Socialistă România, Timişoara, 23–24 noiembrie 1971, 23-24 November 1971 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 106/1971, ff. 58.

³¹ Ibid.

³² Jordan Baev and Anna Locher, eds., Brezhnev’s Crimea Meetings in the 1970s (Washington, DC and Zurich: PHP Publications Series, 2003).

³³ Stenograma întâlnirii conducătorilor unor partide comuniste și muncitorești, Yalta, 31 iulie 1972, 31 July 1972 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 80/1972, ff. 82.

³⁴ Ibid., ff. 96–7.

³⁵ Informare referitor: discuțiile avute de adjunctul ministrului afacerilor externe, Nicolae Ecobescu, la Ministerul Afacerilor Externe al RP Bulgaria, 8 August 1972 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Affairs, dossier no. 172/1972, ff. 15.

³⁶ Stenograma discuțiilor avute cu ocazia primirii de către tovarășul Nicolae Ceaușescu a tovarășului Veliko Vlahovici, membru al Biroului Executiv al Prezidiului Uniunii Comuniștilor din Iugoslavia, 13 November 1970 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 79/1970, ff. 7.

³⁷ Ibid., ff. 8.

³⁸ Ibid., ff. 9.

³⁹ Ibid., ff. 11.

⁴⁰ Ibid., ff. 11–12.

⁴¹ Stenograma convorbirilor oficiale între tovarăşul Nicolae Ceauşescu, secretar general al Partidului Comunist Român, preşedintele Consiliului de Stat al R.S. România, şi tovarăşul Iosip Broz Tito, preşedintele R.S.F. Iugoslavia, preşedintele Uniunii Comuniştilor din Iugoslavia, 15-16 July 1973 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 128/1973, ff. 36–7.

⁴² Ibid., ff. 37.

⁴³ Marie-Pierre Rey, ‘The USSR and the Helsinki Process, 1969–1975: Optimism, Doubt or Defiance?,’ in Origins of the European Security System: The Helsinki Process Revisited, 1965–75, ed. Andreas Wenger, Vojtech Mastny, and Christian Nuenlist (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 76–7.

⁴⁴ Stenograma întâlnirii prietenești a conducătorilor unor partied comuniste și muncitorești, Crimeea, 30–31 iulie 1973, 30-31 July 1973 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 140/1973, ff. 251.

⁴⁵ Ibid., ff. 252.

⁴⁶ Stenograma convorbirii purtate cu ocazia întâlnirii tovarășului Nicolae Ceaușescu cu L.I. Brejnev, Crimeea 1 August 1973, 1 August 1973 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 141/1973, ff. 32.

⁴⁷ Ibid., ff. 34–5.

⁴⁸ Minutes of Conversation between Todor Zhivkov – Leonid I. Brezhnev, Voden Residence [Bulgaria], 20 September 1973, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Central State Archive, Sofia, Fond 378-B, File 360. Obtained by the Bulgarian Cold War Research Group, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111183 (accessed 3 June 2017).

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ Stenograma convorbirilor oficiale între tovarășul Nicolae Ceaușescu și Constantin Caramanlis, președintele Consiliului de Miniștrii al Republicii Elene, 26-27 May 1975 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 74/1975, ff. 7.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² Ibid., ff. 14.

⁵³ Stenograma primirii de către tovarășul Nicolae Ceaușescu a președintelui Partidului Republican al Poporului din Turcia, Bulent Ecevit, 24 July 1975 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 119/1975, ff. 5.

⁵⁴ Ibid., ff. 6. Bülent Ecevit was referring to the G. Ford-L. Brezhnev Summit Meeting on Arms Control which took place in Vladivostok between 23–24 November 1974.

⁵⁵ Stenograma convorbirilor oficiale între tovarășul Nicolae Ceaușescu, secretar general al Partidului Comunist Român, președintele Republicii Socialiste România, și tovarășul Todor Jivkov, prim-secretar al Comitetului Central al Partidului Comunist Bulgar, președintele Consiliului de Stat al Republicii Populare Bulgaria, 16 June 1975 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 89/1975, ff. 25–7.

⁵⁶ Ibid., ff. 31.

⁵⁷ Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Richard Nixon, 1973: Containing the Public Messages, Statements, and Speeches of the President United States (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1975), 999.

⁵⁸ Notă de convorbire, ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 364/1974, ff. 13–14.

⁵⁹ Weekly Summary Special Report. Romania: A Maverick Marches On, ff. 10, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85T00875R001500040033-2.pdf (accessed 5 May 2018).

⁶⁰ Weekly Summary Special Report. Romania: The Ceaușescu Style, ff. 3, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85T00875R001500050029-6.pdf, (accessed 5 May 2018).

⁶¹ Stenograma discuțiilor avute cu ocazia vizitei delegației de partid și guvernamentale a Republicii Socialiste România în Republica Populară Chineză, 4-6 July 1967 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 49/1967, ff. 132.

⁶² Liu Yong, Sino-Romanian Relations 1950s-1960s (Bucureşti: Institutul Naţional pentru Studiul Totalitarismului, 2006), 253–8.

⁶³ Xiaoyuan Liu and Vojtech Mastny, eds., China and Eastern Europe, 1960s–1980s (Zürich, 2004), 33.

⁶⁴ Ibid., 92–8.

⁶⁵ James Hershberg, Sergey Radchenko, Péter Vámos, and David Wolff, The Interkit Story: A Window into the Final Decades of the Sino-Soviet Relationship, Working Paper no. 63 (Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2012), 16.

⁶⁶ Mark Kramer, ‘Declassified Materials from CPSU Central Committee Plenums,’ Cahiers du monde russe 1–2 (1999): 295.

⁶⁷ Larry L. Watts, A Romanian INTERKIT? Soviet Active Measures and the Warsaw Pact ‘Maverick’ 1965–1989, Working Paper 65 (Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2012), 1–2.

⁶⁸ Watts, A Romanian INTERKIT?, 16.

⁶⁹ Mircea Munteanu, ‘Communication Breakdown? Romania and the Sino-American Rapprochement,’ Diplomatic History 33, no. 4 (September 2009): 629.

⁷⁰ Stenograma convorbirilor ce au avut loc cu ocazia vizitei în țara noastră a delegației de partid și guvernamentale a RP Chineze, în frunte cu Ciu Enlai, vicepreședinte al CC al PC Chinez, premierul Consiliului de Stat al RP Chineze, 16-23 June 1966 în ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 82/1966, ff. 38.

⁷¹ Stenograma discuţiilor avute de tovarăşul Nicolae Ceauşescu, secretar general al Partidului Comunist Român, Preşedintele Consiliului de Stat al R.S. România, cu tovarăşul Iosip Broz Tito, preşedintele Uniunii Comuniştilor din Iugoslavia, Preşedintele R.S.F. Iugoslavia (20 septembrie 1969), 20 September 1969 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 78/1969, ff. 17.

⁷² Notă referitor: convorbirile dintre tov. Emil Bodnăraș și conducătorii chinezi, 6 August 1970 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 92/1970, ff. 127.

⁷³ Stenograma convorbirilor purtate cu prilejul vizitei delegaţiei de partid şi guvernamentale condusă de tovarăşul Nicolae Ceauşescu, secretar general al Partidului Comunist Român, preşedintele Consiliului de Stat în Republica Populară Chineză, 2-4 June 1971 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 40/1971, ff. 57.

⁷⁴ Stenograma convorbirilor oficiale purtate cu prilejul întâlnirii dintre tovarăşii Nicolae Ceauşescu şi Iosip Broz Tito în ziua de 17 mai 1972 (administraţia iugoslavă a hidrocentralei ‘Porţile de Fier’), 17 May 1972 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 41/1972, ff. 18.

⁷⁵ Stenograma discuțiilor avute cu ocazia primirii de către tovarășul Nicolae Ceaușescu a adjunctului ministrului afacerilor externe al RP Chineze, Ciao Kuan hua, 21 November 1972 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 141/1972, ff. 17.

⁷⁶ Informare referitor: discuțiile purtate la MAE al RS România cu Ciao Kuan-hua, adjunct al ministrului afacerilor externe al RP Chineze, 27 August 1972 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 172/1972, ff. 19–20.

⁷⁷ Stenograma convorbirii dintre tovarășul Nicolae Ceaușescu și delegația de partid și guvernamentală a RP Chineze, condusă de tovarășul Li Sien-nien, 25 August 1974 ANR, fund CC al PCR – section Foreign Relations, dossier no. 187/1974, ff. 50.

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Cezar Stanciu

Cezar Stanciu (b. 1980) is Lecturer at Valahia University of Târgovişte and senior researcher at the ‘Grigore Gafencu’ Center for the History of International Relations in Târgovişte, Romania. He gained his doctoral degree in history in 2008 and has published numerous articles and books on Romania’s foreign policy during the Communist regime in Romania, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and the United States. His areas of interest are Romanian-Soviet relations, Romania’s foreign policy in the Cold War, ideology in international relations, and small states in the Cold War. His published monographs include: Devoted to the Kremlin: The Alignment of Romania’s Foreign Policy to the Soviet Coordinates (Cetatea de Scaun, 2009); The War of Nerves. Disputes Ceaușescu-Brezhnev 1965–1971 (Cetatea de Scaun, 2011); Nicolae Ceaușescu and the World Communist Movement (Cetatea de Scaun, 2014).