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ABSTRACT
This article discusses Romania’s burgeoning development aid policy to the post-colonial space. By leveraging its expertise in petroleum extraction to forge a strategic relationship with India in the 1950s, Bucharest was able to gain a strategic foothold as oil assistance provider to the non-aligned countries. This text details Romania’s efforts to help build India’s national oil industry by bringing into focus the broad nexus of forces at play in such process. It therefore aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of ‘the Second World’s Third World’ by discussing the ideological and geopolitical considerations of both East-East and East-South relations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Roumania: Annual Review (1955); Telegram from Mr MacDermot, British Legation in Bucharest to S. Lloyd, Foreign Office, Northern Department, 1 February 1956, file FO 371/122692, p. 6, United Kingdom National Archives (UKNA).
2 Ibid., 5.
3 Staff Memorandum No. 28–64. Another Tito in the Balkans?, 27 May 1964, Document RDP85T00875R002000210014-8, General Central Intelligence Agency Records, CIA (CREST/FOIA), https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85T00875R002000210014-8.pdf (accessed November 2018).
4 For a broader discussion on this topic, see Corina Mavrodin, “A Maverick in the Making: Romania’s de-Satellization Process and the Global Cold War (1953–1963)”, thesis submitted to the Department of International History of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, February 2017. The present article is based, in part, on topics discussed in Chapter 4 of this dissertation.
5 CIA Report: Communist Aid to the Third World Oil Industries, 5 May 1973, pp. 1–3, Document 0000309584, General Records, CIA (CREST/FOIA) https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000309584.pdf (accessed November 2018).
6 Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War: A World History (London: Allen Lane, 2017), 423.
7 David C. Engerman, “Learning from the East: Soviet Experts and India in the Era of Competitive Coexistence,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 33, no. 2 (2013): 278, https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-2322507 (accessed December 2018).
8 David C. Engerman, “The Second World’s Third World,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 12, no. 1 (2011): 183–211.
9 Christopher Andrews and Vasili Mitrokhin, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (New York: Basic Books, 2006); Engerman, “Learning from the East: Soviet Experts and India in the Era of Competitive Coexistence”; David C. Engerman, “Development Politics and the Cold War,” Diplomatic History 41, no. 1 (2017): 1–19; David C. Engerman, The Price of Aid: The Economic Cold War in India (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018); Natalia Telepneva, “Our Sacred Duty: The Soviet Union, the Liberation Movements in the Portuguese Colonies, and the Cold War, 1961–1975” (2014), http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3081/1/Telepneva_Our_sacred_duty.pdf (accessed December 2018); Alessandro Iandolo, “Beyond the Shoe: Rethinking Khrushchev at the Fifteenth Session of the United Nations General Assembly,” Diplomatic History 41, no. 1 (2017): 128–54, https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhw010 (accessed December 2018); Sergey Radchenko, Unwanted Visionaries: The Soviet Failure in Asia at the End of the Cold War, Oxford Studies in International History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014); Vladimir Shubin, “A Distant Front in the Cold War: The USSR in West Africa and the Congo, 1956–1964,” Cold War History 12, no. 3 (2012): 565–7, https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2012.702079 (accessed December 2018).
10 Gregg Brazinsky, Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War, New Cold War History (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017); Jeremy Scott Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Split and the Third World (Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 2015).
11 Jeffrey James Byrne, “Beyond Continents, Colours, and the Cold War: Yugoslavia, Algeria, and the Struggle for Non-Alignment,” The International History Review 37, no. 5 (2015): 912–32, https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2015.1051569 (accessed December 2018); Małgorzata Mazurek, “Polish Economists in Nehru’s India: Making Science for the Third World in an Era of De-Stalinization and Decolonization,” Slavic Review 77, no. 3 (2018): 588–610, https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2018.201 (accessed December 2018); Philip E. Muehlenbeck (Philip Emil) and Natalia Telepneva, Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World: Aid and Influence in the Cold War, International Library of Twentieth Century History 101 (London: IBTauris, 2018).
12 Roham Alvandi and Eliza Gheorghe, “The Shah’s Petro-Diplomacy with Ceausescu: Iran and Romania in the Era of Detente,” Working Paper 74 (Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2014); see also David S. Painter, “Oil, Resources, and the Cold War, 1945–1962,” in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, ed. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 486–507, http://universitypublishingonline.org/ref/id/histories/CBO9781139056113A027 (accessed December 2018).
13 Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 76–7.
14 David C. Engerman, “South Asia and the Cold War,” in The Cold War in the Third World, ed. Robert J. McMahon (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013), 69.
15 Engerman, “South Asia and the Cold War,” 72–3.
16 Westad, The Cold War, 430.
17 Called by the Chinese as ‘The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence’, and by the Indians as pancha sila, the guidelines promoted regional cooperation in Asia through respect for sovereignty, non-aggression, and equality. For a more detailed account of the Indo-Chinese talks on this topic see Brazinsky, Winning the Third World, 78–80.
18 Ibid., 80–1.
19 Westad, The Cold War, 433.
20 Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 103.
21 Engerman, “Development Politics and the Cold War,” 3.
22 Ibid., 4.
23 R.K. Sharma, “A Comparative Study of Soviet and American Economic Assistance to India,” in Indo-Soviet Cooperation and India’s Economic Development, ed. R.K. Sharma (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1982), 12.
24 Engerman, “Development Politics and the Cold War,” 11–12.
25 Engerman, “Learning from the East: Soviet Experts and India in the Era of Competitive Coexistence,” 229; Westad, The Cold War, 423, respectively.
26 Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Split and the Third World, 131.
27 Sino-Soviet Bloc Economic Policies in Underdeveloped Countries of the Third World, April 1959, Economic Intelligence Report, CIA (CREST/FOIA). https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79R01141A001400010002-2.pdf (accessed November 2018).
28 Ganesh Shukla, “K.D. Malaviya: An Indian National-Builder,” Executive Intelligence Review, 7 July 1981.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Tanvi Madan, “India’s ONGC: Balancing Different Roles, Different Goals” (The Changing Role of National Oil Companies in International Oil Markets, Japan Petroleum Center, Rice University: James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University, 2007), 13.
32 Ibid., 12.
33 Westad, The Cold War, 427.
34 Tanvi Madan, “India’s ONGC: Balancing Different Roles, Different Goals,” 12.
35 Note verbale, non-dated (internal), regarding India’s political and economic situation, Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, Arhivele Ministerului Afacerilor Externe (AMAE).
36 Ibid.
37 Telegram from the Romanian Legation in New Delhi to Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 June 1955, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, AMAE. Regarding the construction by Romania of some oil refineries in India – sending specialists for drilling (1955–1960), 99–100.
38 The Times of India News Service, “Purely Indian Team to be Set Up: Oil – Prospecting Work,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 28 July 1955.
39 Engerman, “Development Politics and the Cold War,” 4–8.
40 The Times of India News Service, “Soviet Team To Come To India: Exploring Oil Resources,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 22 October 1955.
41 Communist Aid to the Third World Oil Industries (ER RP 73–12), 1 June 1973, pp. 1–3, 19, CIA (CREST/FOIA). https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000309584.pdf (accessed November 2018).
42 Gheorghe Buzatu, O Istorie a Petrolului Romanesc (A History of Romanian Oil) (Iasi, Romania: Demiurg, 2009), 459.
43 Ibid.
44 Painter, “Oil, Resources, and the Cold War, 1945–1962,” 489.
45 Up to 1953, the Soviet Union was a net importer of oil, mostly from Romania. See Painter, “Oil, Resources, and the Cold War, 1945–1962,” 489.
46 Petroleum Industry in Rumania, 21 October 1955, CIA (CREST/FOIA). https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A008200770005-5.pdf (accessed November 2018).
47 In 1950 Romania extracted 5047 tons of oil; this number rose to 10,555 in 1955. See Gheorghe Buzatu, O Istorie a Petrolului Romanesc [A history of Romanian oil], 471.
48 Romanian government official Titus Cristureanu, explaining to his colleagues in Bucharest that the Indian ONGC preferred an increased level of exchange with Romania in order to avoid both internal and external tensions over increased ties with the Soviet Union. See Report on the visit of Titus Cristureanu to India, 15 May, 1958 in Problem 212, Dossier India 3, Regarding the construction by Romania of some oil refineries in India – sending specialists for drilling (1955–1960), AMAE.
49 Between 1956 and 1973 Romania provided India with US$21 million (alongside the Soviet Union’s US$270 million) in credits for developing its oil sector, alongside diversified assistance for building infrastructure and training personnel. See Communist Aid to the Third World Oil Industries (ER RP 73–12), 1 June 1973, pp. 1–3, 19, CIA (CREST/FOIA). https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000309584.pdf (accessed November 2018).
50 Telegram from the Romanian Legation in New Delhi to Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 June 1955, Problem 212, Dossier India 3 (1955–1960), 99–100, AMAE.
51 The Romanian government was also providing aid to China at the time, as were most other Eastern Bloc countries after the country’s civil war.
52 Note verbale, non-dated (internal), regarding India’s political and economic situation, Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Problem 212, Dossier India 3 (1955–1960), AMAE.
53 Ibid.
54 In 1957, especially, the same year that the Romanian government started providing more robust aid to India, Bucharest had received, in turn, a very generous economic assistance package from Moscow after poor harvests the previous autumn. See Minutes of the meeting of the CC of the RWP on 5 December 1956, fond CC of the RWP, Chancellery, document 135/1956, pp. 4–5, Arhivele Naţionale Istorice Centrale (ANIC). Bucharest, Romania.
55 Roumania: Annual Review (1957), Telegram from A. Dudley, British Legation in Bucharest to S. Lloyd, Foreign Office, Northern Department, 7 January 1958, 3, file FO 371/135151, UKNA.
56 Ibid.
57 Telegram from the Romanian Legation in New Delhi to Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 June 1955.
58 See Sharma, “A Comparative Study of Soviet And American Economic Assistance to India”; The Times of India News Service, “Drilling Rig for Prospecting Oil: Pact With Rumania,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 20 March 1956; “Search For Oil Intensified: Prospecting at Jwalamukhi,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 18 May 1958. See also Communist Aid to the Third World Oil Industries (ER RP 73–12), 1 June 1973, pp. 1–3, 19, CIA (CREST/FOIA). https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000309584.pdf (accessed November 2018).; and document FO 371 135167, UKNA.
59 Report on the visit of Titus Cristureanu to India, 15 May 1958, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, (1955–1960), 150–61, AMAE.
60 Ibid. See also Tanvi Madan, “India’s ONGC: Balancing Different Roles, Different Goals,” 22.
61 Telegram from Romanian legation in New Delhi to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest, 15 January 1958, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, Regarding the construction by Romania of some oil refineries in India – sending specialists for drilling (1955–1960), AMAE.
62 Report on the visit of Titus Cristureanu to India, 15 May 1958, in Problem 212, Dossier India 3, AMAE, 150–61.
63 Telegram from Romanian legation in New Delhi to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest, 15 January 1958. Ibid. [Author’s note: although to date no evidence could be found in the currently declassified documents of Soviet-Romanian oil equipment transactions for India’s benefit, it would be safe to assume they existed, given the high level of complementarity between Soviet and Romanian aid during this period).
64 Telegram from Ambassador N. Cioroiu (New Delhi) to Foreign Minister Avram Bunaciu, 26 January 1959, Strictly Confidential, ibid.
65 Ibid.
66 The Times of India, “Drilling Rig for Prospecting Oil.”
67 “Sacred Flame at Jwalamukhi,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 4 April 1956.
68 Telegram from the Romanian Legation in New Delhi to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 29 April 1957, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, Regarding the construction by Romania of some oil refineries in India – sending specialists for drilling (1955–1960), pages unnumbered, AMAE.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 Telegram from the Romanian Legation in New Delhi to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22 July 1957, ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 “Governments Talks With Assam Oil Co.: Charge of Delay Refuted,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 3 November 1957.
74 Ibid.
75 Telegram from the Romanian Legation in New Delhi to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22 July 1957. In Problem 212, Dossier India 3, AMAE.
76 Natural gas was eventually struck in Jwalamukhi, though extraction of oil did not reach expectations.
77 Letter from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry for the Oil and Chemical Industries, Bucharest, 21 May 1958, in Problem 212, Dossier India 3, AMAE, 125.
78 Report on the visit of Titus Cristureanu to India, 15 May 1958, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, AMAE, 150–61.
79 Report from Romanian Embassy, New Delhi, to Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest, 7 March 1959, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, AMAE.
80 “Oil Drilling Suspended,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 9 February 1958; “Oil Drilling Operations At Jwalamukhi: Work to be Resumed,” The Times of India (1861-Current) (Mumbai, India), 12 February 1958.
81 Telegram from the Commonwealth Relations Office to Foreign Office, 1 December 1959, document FO 371/143365, UKNA.
82 Informative note from the Romanian legation in New Delhi to Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest, 18 July 1958, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, AMAE.
83 Telegram from the Commonwealth Relations Office to Foreign Office, 1 December 1959, FO 371/143365, UKNA.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
87 Letter from Mr R.R.D. McIntosh, United Kingdom Trade Commissioner, New Delhi to Mr. J.J.B. Hunt, Commonwealth Relations Office, 17 March 1960, UKNA, DO 35/8521.
88 Ibid.
89 “Blue Print Of Gauhati Oil Refinery Is Submitted: RUMANIAN AMBASSADOR’S ASSURANCE OF HELP,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 19 August 1959.
90 Telegram from Ambassador N. Cioroiu (New Delhi) to Foreign Minister Avram Bunaciu, 26 January 1959, Strictly Confidential, Problem 212, Dossier India 3, 44–6, AMAE.
91 The Times of India News Service, “India’s Oil Needs: Self-Sufficiency Not Far Off,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 29 January 1960.
92 The New York Times and The Times of India News Service, “Oil, Rumania’s Mainstay: Industry Fast Growing,” The Times of India (1861–Current) (Mumbai, India), 10 June 1959.
93 Report concerning the issue of technical assistance in the oil sector, requested by the Indonesian government (internal, undated), Special Dossiers, Indonesia 212/1959, AMAE.
94 Communist Aid to the Third World Oil Industries, p. 2.
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Corina Mavrodin
Corina Mavrodin is author of Romania and the Cold War: The Roots of Exceptionalism, 1953–63 (forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan), and former Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. She completed her PhD in International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she taught courses in both International History and International Relations. Her current research focuses on non-proliferation, non-alignment, and Eastern Europe’s relationship with the Third World during the Cold War.