Nicolae Ceaușescu, Georges Pompidou and Romania – France relations at the beginning of 1970’s

Abstract

In 1972, Nicolae Ceaușescu sent a message to President Georges Pompidou to relaunch Romanian-French relations and solve some problems in which France played an important role. This political act was occasioned by his African tour and the possibilities that Ceaușescu believed he had discovered for profitable bilateral cooperation. The idea was bold even for the Detente years. Unsurprisingly, the French side declined the proposal, considering that at least French-speaking Africa was a region reserved for economic and French action. On the occasion of the same tour, Ceaușescu conferred with the Egyptian president. Starting from here and from the Israeli prime minister’s visit to Romania, the Romanian leader became increasingly involved in the process that would lead to the reconciliation between Egypt and Israel a few years later, a process in which he would have liked to attract France as well. Finally, one problem, which actually had the appearance of litigation, was Romania’s access to the system of generalised preferences to which, to the surprise of the Bucharest communist regime, France was opposed. For the critical contextualisation of the Ceaușescu-Pompidou correspondence, I favoured the use of French diplomatic archives.