Romania's Flirtation With Visegrad States Alarms Experts

Romania's increasingly close relations with Hungary's hardline Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, - and the latter's invitation to Romania to join the Visegrad Group - have alarmed opposition politicians, activists and foreign policy experts in Bucharest.

The experts' group Romania 100 Platform, led by former prime minister Dacian Ciolos, on Sunday urged the Foreign Ministry to make public any plans it had about the Visegrad Group.

This came after several members of the Social Democrat-led government called for closer cooperation with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.

The Romania 100 Platform said it had no objection to cooperation with the group "on certain topics that Romania is interested in" but added: "Romania's formal participation in the Visegrad Group meetings would raise question marks about ... Romania's European policy."

The reactions came as Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu set off to Warsaw for a meeting of the foreign ministers of nine states - the four Visegrad states, the three Baltic states, Bulgaria and Romania. Pictures showed Melescanu and Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski greeting each other warmly.

Min. #Waszczykowski: Odpowiedzią na wyzwania bezp. w regionie jest #NATO. Następne spotkania będą poświęcone szczytowi Sojuszu w 2018 roku. pic.twitter.com/eDxQrksNCh

— MSZ RP?? (@MSZ_RP) October 9, 2017

Melescanu also pledged last week to participate at an upcoming Visegrad group meeting in Budapest on the invitation of Hungary's Prime Minister.

In an interview with Bihari Naplo, a Hungarian-language magazine in Romania, published on October 4, Orban said he wished to find a form of cooperation that would suit Romania inside the Visegrad Group.

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