Rumania's Leader Speaks

LAST week TIME Correspondent Strobe Talbott was given a rare interview with Nicolae Ceausescu. Some excerpts:

ON THE DIVISION OF THE WORLD INTO POWER BLOCS: Economic blocs will be with us for some time. But the military blocs, which came into being during conditions of tension, are now an anachronism and an impediment to the development of relations between states. These relations are on the path of detente, cooperation and peace. That is why Rumania firmly supports the abolition of military blocs.

ON THE UNITED NATIONS: The abolition of military blocs should lead to a growing role for the United Nations. Relations among states must be established on a new basis that respects the principles of the U.N. Charter: the right to independence and sovereignty of every state, the right to choose its own road to economic and social development without any outside interference, and the renunciation of all forms of force and threats of force.

ON THE ARMS REDUCTION TALKS IN VIENNA: Despite Some difficulties, it looks as though an acceptable understanding will be reached finally at the preliminary talks in Vienna [to which Rumania was not invited by NATO] so that actual negotiations can begin on reducing foreign armed forces in Central Europe. Rumania believes that the talks will have to be extended in the future to other zones of the Continent as well, to the whole of Europe. We believe there should be a broader conference on military problems, on the reduction and eventual withdrawal of foreign troops and a reduction of national forces as well.

ON THE EUROPEAN SECURITY CONFERENCE IN HELSINKI: Results at the preliminary talks lead us to expect that the security conference could be held this year. The conference should also adopt measures concerning economic, scientific and cultural cooperation. We favor the creation of a permanent body for the development of European relations.

ON THE GROWTH OF THE COMMON MARKET: The West European countries are moving toward an integration that could create a powerful economic--and, of course, eventually also political--grouping. This poses a series of problems with respect to the development of cooperation among the European states. Cooperation must be based on full equality, with no restrictions. But the Common Market envisages the creation of restrictions [i.e., trade barriers]. However, we hope ways will be found to eliminate them.

ON RUMANIAN-AMERICAN RELATIONS: I believe that in the next four or five years our trade could increase three to four times or even more if one of the pledges made by President Nixon materializes. He promised to grant Rumania most-favored-nation status, thereby creating for Rumanian products the same conditions enjoyed by the products of many other states. We hope that President Nixon's promise will be fulfilled soon.

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