76. Letter From President Reagan to Romanian President Ceausescu1

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for your warm letter,2 which Foreign Minister Andrei delivered to me when we met on May 15. I very much appreciate your kind invitation to visit Romania, and I hope it will be possible for us to agree on a visit at a mutually convenient future date.

It was a pleasure for me to meet Foreign Minister Andrei and to have an opportunity to discuss the state of our relations. I view the Foreign Minister’s visit to Washington and Secretary Baldrige’s visit to Bucharest as having been particularly beneficial.3 Continued contacts of this kind will lead us to a deepening of our understanding for each other’s positions on major international issues and will contribute to greater cooperation between us as we deal with them.

Let me take this occasion to also respond to your May 15 message on Lebanon. I can assure you we are continuing intensive efforts to defuse the crisis and to find ways of resolving this situation by peaceful means, supportive of Lebanon’s independence, national unity and territorial integrity.

I look forward to our future correspondence.

Sincerely,

Ronald Reagan
  1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Head of State File, Romania: President Ceausescu (8101689) (2). No classification marking. A draft of the letter is ibid.
  2. See Document 67.
  3. Telegram 3703 from Bucharest, May 15, summarized the political aspects of the conversation between Baldrige and Ceausescu. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files, D810231–0007) Telegram 3774 from Bucharest, May 19, summarized Baldrige’s meeting with Romanian Deputy Prime Minister Burtica. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files, D810528–0318) Telegram 3756, May 19, outlined the economic and commercial issues that Baldrige and Ceausescu addressed in their conversation. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D810235–0655)