Romania seeks to become a gateway between China and Europe

H.E. Doru Costea, Ambassador of Romania in China

 Contacts between China and Romania go back 300 years, when during the 17th century a Romanian dignitary visited the court of the Emperor Kangxi. H.E. Costea tells that the book written by this dignitary about his travels became a true bestseller in the whole of Europe.

Proper good relations between these two countries started in 1949 when Romania was among the first countries to recognize the People's Republic of China. Mr. Costea mentions that Romania had a privileged position towards China.

"Our history is rich in terms particularly of cooperation, dialogue and understanding. This particular relationship was based on a variety of factors including political factors, ideological factors and economic interests."

During those times Romania brought to China for instance movies and furniture. Interestingly also many Chinese came to Romania to be trained in various fields. With pride in his voice, H.E. Costea tells that "one of them was an electric engineer, whose name was Jiang Zemin. He later became president and speaks Romanian."

H.E. Costea describing Sino-Romania relations to CECTV reporter Ville Vuorensola

Mr. Costea tells that nowadays the relations between China and Romania are based on three pillars: very intense political dialogue, a solid two-way economic cooperation and a very active people to people relationship. Thanks to these three pillars, the connections between China and Romania have reached a new in the last few years.

Romania would like to cooperate closely with China regarding the One Belt, One Road initiative. Mr. Costea tells of his vision for the future. He sees that the point where the main routes of the ancient Silk Road met before entering Western Europe was the West Coast of the Black Sea, nowadays in modern-day Romania.

From this point also starts the Danube, the second largest river in Europe, which flows from Germany to Romania where it then meets the Black Sea. H.E. Costea sees great potentian in using the Danube as a gateway for the goods moving on the new Silk Road planned by China.

"So here you have a perfect waterway that would lead your goods directly from the Black Sea to the heart of Europe."

Mr. Costea also thinks that thanks to its historical cooperation with China, Romania could work as a link between China and Europe. This would be possible through Romania’s long experience and understanding of Chinese thinking and working culture. 

"We can play as a sort of interface between China and the rest of Europe. We have been closer to them, we understand them. There is a very deep trust between us."

When we asked about the future of the project, Mr. Costea started to imagine a little bit. He sees that in 15 years there would be more readiness of talking, instead of fighting with each other. He sees the future in very positive terms as he hopes that we would understand that there is more profit for everyone for working together, not competing.

"This is a bit idealistic, I agree. But if the end result is better for everybody, why not?"