Bucharest, 4 November 1997 (RFE/RL) - Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea has proposed a Southeast European Center for crisis prevention and management. Ciorbea suggested the center be located in Bucharest and come under NATO supervision. The Vienna-based OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) also maintains a crisis-prevention center.
Ciorbea made the proposal yesterday at the meeting on Balkan concerns in Crete. Ciorbea asserted that Romania is the only country in the region that has no tensions or conflicts with his neighbors.
Romanian media today say Ciorbea is reluctant to endorse a Greek proposal to set up a Balkan organization on the model of the European Union. Ciorbea is reported, instead, to favor strengthening the already existing Black Sea Cooperation Council.
On the sidelines of the Balkan meeting, Ciorbea held talks with Yugoslavia's President, Slobodan Milosevic. Ciorbea is reported to have asked Milosevic to recognize and protect the rights of an ethnic-Romanian minority living in Serbia's Timoc Valley.