The decision of paying the debts resulted in a major shift in economic relations. The Trade with Soviet Union as a Percentage of total Romanian trades decrease systematically between 1960 and 1980 as we have seen, but from 1980 a systematically increase could be noticed:
Trade with Soviet Union as a Percentage of #1;
Total Romanian Trade
1975 18
1980 17
1984 21
1985 22
1986 38
1987 28
Romania's imports of Soviet oil, for example, increased from 350,000 tons in 1979 to more than 6 million tons in 1986 #2;.
Although Romania was still careful to resist any idea that smacked of supra nationalism or infringement of sovereignty, its economic relation with the Soviet Union and the rest of CMEA countries increased in importance. The trade with socialist countries, which had accounted for one-third of Romania's trade in 1980, counted for three-fifths in 1986 and fully two-thirds of the country's import #3;. If we take into account the ideological conflict from that period, we have the image of the increasing vulnerability of the regime.
In spite of this, the relations with the Soviet Union were approached by N. Ceausescu in the same framework: he criticised Soviet position on the controversy of the Intermediate Nuclear Force and the Soviet government intention, made clear in November 1983, of deploying additional missiles in Czechoslovakia and GDR in response to Bonn's decision, and to withdrawal from the Geneva talks. A visit paid by the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to Bucharest in January-February 1984, with the purpose of bringing Romania closer to bloc positions on a variety of issues, ended in apparent failure. More than that, Romania was the only socialist country to participate at the Los Angeles Olympic Games from 1984.
From 1985 on, beginning with perestroika and glasnost, the dispute with USSR was not only on the assertion of autonomy and sovereignty, but an ideological dispute started between Bucharest and Moscow, encompassing a broader set of problems such as: economic reform, decentralisation and limited pluralism in political matters. The Romanian leader, N. Ceausescu, not only that categorically rejected the reforms begun in the Soviet Union, but he moved in the opposite direction of the Soviets and other Eastern communist countries. He pretended that in Romania the reforms are not needed, or they are already implemented. Ceausescu was the last of the East European leaders to visit Moscow after Gorbachev's selection as party leader, and Romania was the last of the East European countries to be visited by the new Soviet leader after his installation. During his visit to Bucharest in 1987, Gorbachev did make some critics to the Romanian policy. The personal animosity between Ceausescu and Gorbachev was obvious. Changes in Hungary and Poland were threatened by the hostile reaction of N. Ceausescu, and he proposed a military intervention in Poland. But in October 1989, the seven Warsaw Pact Foreign Ministers meeting in Poland it was affirmed a policy of non-interference in each other's affair.
Thus, Gorbachev and a number of other
Soviet leaders and commentators consider the current regime and
its policies in various areas an embarrassment to scientific socialism
and have indicated this on a number of occasions.
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