Russia’s ambassador was summoned to the Romanian foreign ministry on Thursday following public comments he made about a missile defense shield and unreturned gold.
Ambassador Valery Kuzmin made various statements in a 3-hour news conference that irritated the Romanian government and will test relations already strained by the Ukraine crisis.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu invited the diplomat to the ministry to present its position.
State secretary for strategic issues, Iulian Fota, was tasked with telling the ambassador that a NATO site in Deveselu, southern Romania is purely defensive_ repeating a well-known position.
“The missile shield, part of a 2011 Romanian-American agreement… is an integral part of NATO’s anti-missile defense system. It is strictly defensive and is not aimed at Russia,” a statement said.
“It is exclusively designed for potential ballistic attacks outside the Euro-Atlantic space,” it added. There is “no intention or possibility” of launching missiles from the base.
Mr Kuzmin was also called into the ministry to discuss unreturned gold which was shipped to Moscow for safekeeping in World War I. It has never been returned despite efforts by Bucharest to recover it.
The Romanian Treasure as it is known is a collection of valuable objects and 120 tons of gold reserves now worth billions.
On Wednesday, the Russian ambassador said the treasure was not on the bilateral agenda, even suggesting Romania should forget about it.
But the ministry said the issue was penciled in to be discussed at the next joint commission.
“Romania considers that public interventions like this aim to create erroneous perceptions in the public mind. This doesn’t bode well for… dialogue which is based on trust. (It) doesn’t result in a predictable and constructive relationship.”
The ministry said any dialogue needed to respect “international commitments” and “international law.”
