Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan left last night on an official visit to Rumania. He will be in Bucharest for a little more than two days. He is the fourth Israeli minister to visit Rumania in the past year.
Speaking to reporters at Ben Gurion Airport, Dayan said he expected the United States to continue its efforts to further a peace settlement in the Middle East after President Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance return from their current tour of South America and Africa. He said he had no plans to visit Washington in the near future but that Israel would send its representatives there if necessary and the U.S. will send its delegates to the Middle East.
Dayan said he regretted Egypt’s rejection of Israel’s offer to resume the political and military committee talks, suspended since January but said he was convinced that personal contacts will continue along the lines of Defense Minister Ezer Weizman’s meetings with President Anwar Sadat last week. He said he expected mediation through the U.S. to continue.
CORDIAL, FRIENDLY TALKS
According to reports late tonight from Bucharest, Dayan held a three-hour discussion with President Nicolae Ceausescu and other Rumanian officials in which he outlined Israel’s Middle East negotiating position. The talks were described as “cordial, friendly, constructive and important” by Israeli diplomats who refused to give any details. Dayan reportedly gave the Rumanian President a personal message from Premier Menachem Begin. But no details have been disclosed.
The Israeli Foreign Minister also met for 90 minutes today with his Rumanian counterpart, Stefan Andrei. Dayan was given a heavily guarded sightseeing tour of Bucharest today. He also met with Jewish community leaders. Dayan was scheduled to meet with Andre again tomorrow and perhaps also with Ceausescu.
MORE THAN ROUTINE IMPORTANCE
Meanwhile, Dayan’s trip to Rumania is viewed here as of more than routine importance. Rumania is the only Communist bloc country to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. Commercial relations between the two countries reached a volume of $50 million last year and the exchange of tourists between them is flourishing.
Begin, who visited Rumania last year, was lavish in his praise of Ceausescu for the role he played in bringing about Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem last November. Some sources say the compliments were not necessarily proportional to Ceausescu’s actual contribution to Sadat’s initiative.
Nevertheless, the present government, like its Labor-led predecessor, is anxious to maintain friendly relations with Bucharest, the only East European regime to pursue a foreign policy independent of Moscow. Israelis are fully aware, how ever, that Rumania disapproves of Israel’s position in the Middle East conflict and has often declared its support for Israel’s return to its 1967 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state. This has not affected the cordiality between the two governments.
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