Bucharest is kneeling by Washington, Romania throws away $ 1 billion, cooperation with China is frozen (I)

By Constantin Radut
In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bucharest authorities are behaving like servants in the face of the Trump administration’s claims to dominate Eastern Europe. Americans do not want competition from other major economic powers, especially China.
The first big step was to eliminate Huawei from the auction that Romania is preparing to launch for 5G services, the newest technology in the communications sector. It is almost certain that under Washington’s pressure, Huawei will not be accepted at the auction in Romania, as in other US satellite countries. Despite the fact that, at present, the Chinese company is well located in Romania where it employs almost 2500 Romanian specialists.
There are many sectors in which Romania could have benefited from financial funds, technical collaboration and cooperation with Chinese companies for economic development. As do other Eastern European states less corrupted by American promises.
The US promises and does not bring any important support for the development of the Romanian economy. Washington forced us to allocate 2% of GDP for armaments and for now we have chosen some second-hand F-16s and some armored personnel carriers for which we gave the money in advance, but local production has not started.
These days, Washington has taken the big hit.
On May 26, Societatea Națională Nuclearelectrica S.A. (“SNN”) informed the shareholders and investors that, on the same day, 26.05.2020, it received a request to complete the agenda of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders set for 12.06.2020 / 15.06.2020 from the shareholder majority, the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, which shows:
“Request for introduction on the agenda of the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders convened for 12.06.2020 / 15.06.2020 of the following items:
– Repeal of the Strategy for the continuation of the Cernavoda Units 3 and 4 Project by organizing an investor selection procedure (2014) as well as the revised Strategy for the continuation of the Cernavoda Units 3 and 4 Project by organizing an investor selection procedure (2018);
– Mandating the SNN Board of Directors to initiate the procedures / steps / actions regarding the termination of negotiations with CGN, as well as the termination of the legal effects (by agreement of the parties, denunciation, etc.) of the following documents: “Memorandum of Understanding 3 and 4 from Cernavoda NPP (MoU), and respectively of (ii) the Investor Agreement in preliminary form;
– Mandating the SNN Board of Directors to initiate the necessary steps for the analysis and crystallization of the strategic options regarding the construction of new electricity generation capacities from nuclear sources ”.
In 2019, Nuclearelectrica Romania, which operates two 700 MW nuclear reactors, and China General Nuclear Power Corporation signed the Investor Agreement in preliminary form for the construction of nuclear reactors 3 and 4, a project valued at 6-7 billion euros.
The construction of reactors 3 and 4 began during the former Ceausescu regime, but their construction was interrupted after 1989, although the construction stages had reached 30-40%. The volume of work done by Romania in the two unfinished reactors is over $ 1 billion.
The development of new nuclear units in Romania has been under discussion since 2003.
At that time, the Government of Bucharest praised this event.
He now characterizes it as a betrayal of American interests. In fact, since last year, American officials have “dusted” this commitment of Romania.
Last year, Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger said in an interview with US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry that he was worried that Romania was seriously considering doing business with the Chinese state-owned China General Nuclear Power Corporation.
Adam Kinzinger said: “This week (n.r. May 2019), Romania signed a preliminary agreement with the Chinese company for the construction of two new reactors worth several billion dollars. We have American companies that want to build, but their offer was rejected by the Romanian government due to China’s growing influence in Romania. To make matters worse, the two new nuclear reactors are located near the Black Sea a few km from the MK base (Mihai Kogălniceanu – ed.) Where we have American soldiers. From a national security standpoint, are you concerned about this investment by China in our ally’s energy infrastructure? ”
Lies, lies, lies.
The Americans were never interested in building reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavoda.
The reactors 1 and 2 in operation are built by the Ceausescu regime, and at the Mihail Kogalniceanu airport there was no American military leg in the 1980s.
The American propaganda and pressure succeeded. For now.