| Emil Constantinescu who was president of Romania from 1996 to 2000 and is an old friend of Clinton was at the Democracy Gala 2025 where he was recognized for his tireless efforts, after the end of the presidential term, to establish a “Culture of Peace through education”.
The former presidents are linked by a friendship that has lasted for over 30 years. Their collaboration during both presidential mandates changed Romania’s destiny, with the launch of the Romania-US Strategic Partnership, on July 11, 1997, in Bucharest’s University Square, a statement said.
In his speech in Berlin, former President Clinton drew attention to the expansion of authoritarianism around the globe and the need for truth, which generates the trust that democracy and peace bring:
“We have no way to sweeten reality or look for other explanations. Autocracy is expanding, and today we have in the United States a government that has thrown the dice on the side of the autocrats. Where there are no truths that have been agreed upon, even if the facts have happened right before your eyes, and where we have leaders who ask us to ignore them – that Putin did not invade Ukraine, that Ukraine, in fact, somehow brought about this fate on its own – where there are no realities, there can be no truth; And where there is no truth, there can be no trust, and where there is no trust, there can be no democracy and peace.”
“Although the unipolar world of the last decade of the twentieth century quickly became, after September 11, multipolar with an anarchic periphery, eroded by the proliferation of terrorism, repeated internal, regional and global crises, which resuscitated the population’s temptation to violence and authoritarian regimes, President Clinton’s initiatives to transform violent conflicts into peaceful cooperation will remain a landmark. President Clinton is one of those rare leaders in the history of the world who used his Power to turn his Destiny into a Mission. The mission to put himself at the service of Humanity. In this case, Power is no longer linked to financial considerations or political combinations, but to faith in fundamental moral values. William Jefferson Clinton remained even after the end of his presidential term a tireless defender of citizens’ rights, a devoted activist of humanitarian actions, a peacemaker accepted because of the respect he earned throughout his life, President Emil Constantinescu said.
Democracy, freedom and the survival of humanity are the major themes that brought together in Berlin more than 200 personalities from all over the world – prominent heads of state and political leaders, Nobel Prize laureates, creators of Artificial Intelligence, philosophers and artists – at the “World Forum on the Future of Democracy, Technology and Humanity”.
“Your President and I have agreed to establish a strategic partnership between our nations; an important partnership for America, because Romania is important for America, important in itself, and important as a model in this difficult part of the world. Romania can show the people of this region, and indeed people around the world, that there is a better way than conflict, division and repression. This is cooperation, freedom and peace, Bill Clinton said at the launch of the Romania-US Strategic Partnership.
Also present at the event in Berlin were Hillary Clinton (US Secretary of State, 2009-2013),
Olena Zelenska (First Lady of Ukraine), Katarina Barley (Vice-President of the European Parliament), Ehud Olmert (Prime Minister of Israel 2006-2009), Oleksandra Matviichuk (leader of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022), Russian opposition leaders Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, philosopher Yuval Noah Harari, David Sinclair (professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School), Peter Singer (professor of bioethics at Princeton University), Yoshua Bengio (professor at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the University of Montreal), considered one of the “godfathers of Artificial Intelligence”. The Vatican was represented by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and Pope Francis delivered a video message.
Romania’s role as a model was appreciated by the personalities from the Vatican, from Kosovo, the Republic of Moldova, Tunisia and the Philippines present at the inaugural session of the “World Forum on the Future of Democracy, Technology and Humanity”. The role played by President Constantinescu in the visit of Pope John Paul II to Romania, the first visit of a Sovereign Pontiff to a majority Orthodox country after the Great Schism of 1054, in resolving the ethnic and religious conflict in Kosovo, in the process of democratization of the Republic of Moldova, was underlined. Then, the role he played in the conduct of the first elections in Tunisia after the success of the Arab Spring, as co-president of the International Parliamentary Election Observation Mission in Tunisia, organized by the International Republican Institute. Last but not least, the grandiose ceremony held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila in 2013 was evoked, when Emil Constantinescu received the “Gusi Peace Prize”, awarded for a significant contribution to peacekeeping, in the field of governance and academics. The motivation of the Philippine Committee for the Gusi Peace Prize mentioned that the political, cultural and diplomatic efforts undertaken by President Constantinescu in favor of peace enhance human dignity, friendship and goodwill.
Jimmy Carter, the model of a democratic president: former Romanian President Emil Constantinescu breaks his silence
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