Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze on Saturday pledged to open the Soviet-Romanian border and provide oil and gas to allow Romanians to turn up their heat for the first winter in years.
Shevardnadze, on a one-day visit, spent more than five hours in talks with his Romanian counterpart, Sergiu Celac; Premier Petre Roman; and Ion Iliescu, president of the National Salvation Front that is running the country.He promised that Moscow would not interfere if Romania established a multiparty democracy.
Romania's interim leaders had high expectations for the visit, the first by a senior Soviet official since Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was ousted Dec. 22 in a popular revolt and executed three days later.
The Soviet chief diplomat invited Iliescu and Celac to visit Moscow, and Iliescu told Soviet TV he planned to go this month to "jointly discuss the fate of the Warsaw Pact."
Celac later issued a statement vowing that Romania would honor its human rights commitments in accords adopted by 35 nations in Vienna in January 1989.
Ceausescu's regime had said it did not feel bound by the commitments on freedom of religion and emigration.
The Kremlin already had pledged aid to the new Romania and confirmed Moscow would provide oil and gas to help Romania through the winter.
Under Ceausescu, Romania's 23 million people suffered through winters with barely any heat or light for their homes as the dictator redirected raw material imports to his pet industrialization projects.
Shevardnadze said the Soviet Union also accepts that some Romanian products will no longer be exported to the Soviet Union. Ceausescu exported vast quantities of food, especially meat, to ensure energy supplies from Moscow.
One of the first moves by the interim leadership was to stop food exports so it could feed deprived Romanians.
At a 45-minute news conference after his talks, Shevardnadze said the two countries would start discussion on opening the border so that "people can go without any difficulties whatsoever to make contacts."
The border between Romania and Soviet Moldavia had been one of the most tightly closed in Eastern Europe, and cultural and other exchanges were severely restricted by frosty Soviet-Romanian relations in the past.
Romanians in the border region and many Soviet Moldavians had hoped for a more open border.
Soviet Moldavia consists largely of territory annexed from Romania by Josef Stalin in 1940 and rewon by the Red Army in 1944 after a three-year occupation by Axis forces in World War II.
Moldavians, whose spoken language is identical to Romanian, have been appealing for increased independence from Moscow, and Romania's revolution has sparked speculation they could even push for a form of reunification.
Asked about the possibility of reunification, Shevardnadze said existing European treaties guarantee the territorial integrity of all the countries of Europe and their existing borders.
Security was tight throughout Shevardnadze's visit. Half a dozen paratroopers with helmets and automatic weapons stood outside the conference room and at least one was posted inside the room where the news conference was held.