Bucharest, April 25 (RFE/RL) - The leader of Romania's main opposition - Emil
Constantinescu of the Democratic Convention - has expressed strong reservations
about a Romania-Russia treaty. The treaty is expected to be initialed this week
as Russia's Foreign Minister Yevgency Primakov is scheduled to visit Bucharest.
Our Bucharest correspondent reports a reference to previously secret protocols to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact will be dropped from the treaty, but addressed in a separate document, which will not be legally binding. Romania, on the other hand, has insisted on a specific denounciation of the protocols in a treaty being negotiated with Ukraine. Under the protocols, Northern Bukovina eventually became part of Ukraine, and Bessarabia part of Moldova.
Constantinescu said the treaty was drafted without consulting Parliament, and he criticized President Ion Iliescu for being so eager to sign the treaty during Russia's presidential campaign. Constantinescu challenged Iliescu for the Presidency in 1992, and will again this year.
Just before disunion of the USSR in 1991, Iliescu and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty, which - if it had been ratified by Romania's Parliament - would have prevented Romania from joining a military alliance, other than the Warsaw Pact.
Primakov's visit this week is scheduled to coincide with a meeting in Bucharest of the Black Sea Cooperation Council.
Our Bucharest correspondent reports a reference to previously secret protocols to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact will be dropped from the treaty, but addressed in a separate document, which will not be legally binding. Romania, on the other hand, has insisted on a specific denounciation of the protocols in a treaty being negotiated with Ukraine. Under the protocols, Northern Bukovina eventually became part of Ukraine, and Bessarabia part of Moldova.
Constantinescu said the treaty was drafted without consulting Parliament, and he criticized President Ion Iliescu for being so eager to sign the treaty during Russia's presidential campaign. Constantinescu challenged Iliescu for the Presidency in 1992, and will again this year.
Just before disunion of the USSR in 1991, Iliescu and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty, which - if it had been ratified by Romania's Parliament - would have prevented Romania from joining a military alliance, other than the Warsaw Pact.
Primakov's visit this week is scheduled to coincide with a meeting in Bucharest of the Black Sea Cooperation Council.