Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

102. Telegram From the Embassy in Romania to the Department of State¹

9870.

Bucharest, December 22, 1982, 1206Z

SUBJECT

• Visit of Special Envoy; Education Repayment Decree.

REF

• Bucharest 9805.²

1. Acting Foreign Minister Aurel Duma summoned the Ambassador to the Ministry this morning (December 22) to give him President Ceausescu’s response to the proposal that Under Secretary Eagleburger visit Romania to discuss the education repayment decree and other matters. Duma said that following the Ambassador’s call on him on the evening of the 20th he had informed President Ceausescu of Eagleburger’s appointment and the proposed dates of the visit (January 4–5). Duma said that President Ceausescu informed him that he and the Foreign Minister will be out of the country January 3–6 and that he preferred that the Eagleburger visit occur after January 7.

2. Duma requested that we let him know as soon as possible the new proposed dates of the visit.

3. The Ambassador asked Duma whether any arrangements regarding the education repayment decree had been worked out with Israel. Duma took a few seconds to get his thoughts in order, then responded that Romania’s relations with Israel were going well and that there were no problems to date. He said that the emigration repayment decree would be applied to persons emigrating to Israel as well as to any other country, but that how it will be applied—how the tax will be paid—will have to be worked out. “Rabbi Rosen is an intelligent man, he will be able to come up with some solution.”

4. Discussing emigration to Israel, Duma said that Romania has sent many cadre—doctors and educated men—to Israel and that this has been a great boon to Israeli development. He noted in passing that many Jews who emigrated to Israel from Romania are asking to return to Romania or to leave Israel for Vienna and the United States.

5. Returning to the application of the decree, Duma said that emigrants whose applications were approved before the effective date of the decree will not be required to repay to the GOR the cost of their education. Conversely, he said, those whose applications are approved after the date of the decree will indeed be required to repay the cost of their education.

6. In response to questions regarding the rates, he went into his office and returned with a mimeographed schedule of charges which he consulted when passing along the following information. He said the rates this year are as follows: for high school (liceu), 185 dollars per month for each month of the 9–10 month academic year; for technical and economic training at university level, approximately 300 dollars a month; for medical training, approximately 400 dollars a month; and the fine arts and theater training, where tutelage is on a one-to-one basis, 700–800 dollars per month. He said the rate would vary from year to year in the future with the charges being whatever the going rate is during the year the application is approved.

7. Duma said that he hoped that Under Secretary Eagleburger would bring with him some suggestions as to how the cost of education of emigrants going to the United States might be paid. He floated as a possibility the extension of credits, with the USG in turn collecting the cost from the emigrants themselves after they are in the United States. He made very clear that he sees the primary purpose of the Under Secretary’s visit to be working out an arrangement whereby the United States through one means or another can meet the Romanian education repayment requirements.

8. Duma reiterated the GOR position regarding the emigration tax. He stressed that it was not an emigration matter but an internal requirement concerning individual Romanian’s obligations to the state. Free education, he said, is provided to those who remain in Romania, not for those who emigrate. “It would be immoral and unethical for such persons to leave without paying.” He said Romania is in effect giving receiving nations trained manpower. “No one gives us anything; we are charged 18 percent interest for whatever money we get.”

9. In closing he noted that too much is being made of problems with emigration and that Romanian-US relations involved much more than this subject. With regard to emigration to the United States, he said that the GOR was now handling more applications to depart than ever—4,000 persons applied to emigrate to the United States in 1982, twice the number that applied in 1981. He added that departures for Israel have remained constant: 1147 in 1980, 1102 in 1981, 1552 in 1982.

Funderburk

1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Country File, Europe and Soviet Union, Romania (11/23/1982–01/05/1983). Confidential; Immediate. Printed from a copy that was received in the White House Situation Room.
2. Telegram 9805 from Bucharest, December 21, conveyed Acting Romanian Foreign Minister Aurel Duma’s reaction to the selection of Eagleburger as the President’s emissary to Romania. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D820661–0088)