The U.S. Ambassador to Romania visited a nuclear plant in eastern Romania on Tuesday where the U.S. is investing billions of dollars and blasted Chinese companies which had sought a stake in Romania’s nuclear industry.
“(Chinese) technology, 5G as well as other devices, are designed with the goal of spying and obtaining information on our countries and each and every one of you. Only clean network technology can protect our national security and individual privacy,” Ambassador Adrian Zuckerman said.
Romania’s economy ministry signed cooperation and financing agreements worth $8 billion with the United States in October to build two nuclear reactors at its plant on the River Danube.
In May 2020, the Romanian state-owned nuclear power producer Nuclearelectrica terminated its partnership with China General Nuclear (CGN) for the building the two reactors after six years.
The Romanian firm already has two 700 megawatt reactors at the country’s only nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, eastern Romania which account for about 20% of Romania’s power production, and it plans to add two more.
Exim US intends to support strategic investments in Romania and provide financing lines of approximately 7 billion US dollars.
Exim Bank chairman Kimberly Reed visited Romania on Tuesday to discuss the agreement between the Romanian Government and Exim for financing energy and infrastructure.
The U.S. Ambassador who visited Cernavoda Tuesday with Ms Reed said the agreement was “historic… for the U.S.-Romanian bilateral relationship,” and thanked U.S. President Donald Trump, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and outgoing Prime Minister Ludovic Orban.
The Ambassador said the visit “highlights the extraordinary cooperation between the United States and Romania to ensure Romania’s national security, to achieve energy security.”
He singled out the outgoing prime minister for “having the courage to terminate Romania’s agreement for Cernavoda with CGN, a corrupt communist Chinese company that has been indicted for its fraudulent and corrupt conduct throughout the world.”
The U.S. Ambassador who has been an outspoken critic of China said the U.S. would continue to “support the rule of law and respect human rights.”
“Communist Chinese companies respect neither. The fraudulent conduct of indicted communist Chinese companies like Huawei, Nuctech and ZTE will not be countenanced nor tolerated. They pose a national security risk to the United States, Romania, Europe and the entire free world,” he said.
“Prime Minister Orban determined there was no room in Romania for communist Chinese companies that threaten national security,” he said.
The Ambassador also thanked Energy and Economy Minister Virgil Popescu, the CEO of the state nuclear company Nuclearelectrica and the “stalwart support” of U.S. Exim chairman Kimberly Reed and her team, the Department of Energy, Secretary Dan Brouillette, Ted Garrish, Deputy Assistant Secretary Duncan and their teams.
Bilateral trade has exceeded $3 billion annually for the past three years, the Ambassador said, and “Romania (is) poised to become an ever-more important gateway for American companies to the European Union.”
