NBR Governor Mugur Isarescu: US interest is where there is oil and gas

By Theo Moreni
Americans make foreign policy according to the areas where oil and gas are found, according to former US adviser Brzezinski, National Bank of Romania Governor Mugur Isarescu said Friday at the conference ‘The Economic Impact of the Oil and Gas Industry of Romania on 100 years: 1918-2018 ‘.
‘The evolution of this sector is closely related to that of modern Romania. This industry has played an extremely important role in the modernization of Romania. The resources that contributed to the modernization of Romania were the oil, the grain and the timber, “Isarescu said in his speech.
He showed that the world does not know sufficiently the history of Romania’s oil sector and the fact that the first oil production recorded in the world statistics was extracted on our territory.
The NBR governor argued that in some books of reference history, there is no mention of Romania regarding World War I. On the other hand, when we talk about World War II, Romania is noticed by the air raid of the Americans who bombarded the oilfields and refineries in Ploiesti to destroy the German soldiers’ fuel.
“In the Second World War, oil was both good luck and our misfortune. They also looked at the Germans in Romania and became friends, forcibly, with some, and with others. That’s how we stayed in the history of the Second World War, “he added.
Isarescu reported how, during a visit to the United States in the 1970s, an American said, “I know Romania well, I bombarded you in the war.”
Also, the NBR official also told how, in a 90s meeting, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former US security adviser, told Romanian President Ion Iliescu that US foreign policy is oriented on the basis of hydrocarbon-rich areas.
‘Let me tell you a real story. I once participated in a meeting in post-communist Romania, with the counselor of President Brzezinski, in the 1990s. The then President of Romania asked a question: ‘Tell me how do you explain how this American policy is doing?’. He was at the table … The man replied: ‘Do you know how? Try to get up, up, up, up, into a satellite and watch the world from above, all over, from a satellite, so … And where you see that it’s oil and gas, there I am and our eye and the American interest. That’s how we do foreign policy, “said the governor of the NBR.
Isarescu repeated at the end of the speech that oil was one of the resources that contributed significantly to the modernization of our country.