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Ambassador Mark Henry Gitenstein/caption
Mark Henry Gitenstein was born in 1947 in Montgomery Alabama. He is of Romanian Jewish heritage as his grandparents were immigrants from the city of Botoani Romania in the late 19th century. He attended Duke University and Georgetown Law School.
Gitenstein served as the United States Ambassador to Romania from August 28 2009 until December 14 2012. During his
tenure he worked to strengthen relations with Romania on issues like fighting corruption improving transparency and strengthening the rule of law. He also encouraged greater private sector involvement in state-owned enterprises. The U.S.-Romanian Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement was signed and negotiated during Gitensteins tenure in Bucharest.
I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Gitenstein at the Romanian Embassy in Washington DC during a symposium-gala on issues of politics security management and culture of the
ALIANŢA (The Alliance Friends of the Romanian-American Alliance) organization.
During the event I had a brief interview with the former ambassador.
1. Mr. Ambassador you served as a U.S. ambassador in Romania in the past. Now Romania is about to end the Centenary Year of 2018 since its Great Union. How would you characterize the year of 2018 for Romania and Romanians?
How would I characterize the year?
2. The year of the Centennial.
Well…
3. Good and bad highs and lows…
Well you know the problem with Romania is that expectations sometimes are unrealistic. I have to tell Romanians: You are trying to do in twenty years what it took the United States a hundred years to go"
(he laughs). You know a hundred years after our Constitution was enacted and we created a functional democracy we still have to watch which mobile is running the political parties and the press and you know there is a lot of economic concentration that took another thirty years to overcome that. So Romania has made tremendous progress since the Revolution in particular in 1989 and I now am very optimistic of what Romania is doing.
4. Thank you so much. How would you characterize in short the U.S. relations with Romania during the current administrations Trump and Iohannis?
Well Romanian relationship is between two countries its not between two men. And it doesnt in the long run really matter who the president of either country is as long as the relationship is people to people. And what our answer is all about is building and reaffirming that relationship. And I feel very good about what we are doing with the ALIANŢA events here in Washington. And I am very close to president Iohannis I think hes doing a very good job. So I am optimistic about where its going. Your ambassador is here we have our ambassador in Romania so we may have a very close relationship. So its going to be fine.
5. Thank you. The last question. What challenges will Romania face in its near future in your opinion?
Well all countries in Europe are facing economic and political uncertainty in large measure because there seems to be too much chaos in Europe right now as it relates to Brexit and the pressures politically and economically on all sectors in Europe from Western to Eastern Europe. And thats going to settle out by forces than are bigger than even the EU. Its going to depend on the development of the economies in these countries. And generally the trend is in the right direction. So if the political systems can keep up with the aspirations especially of young Romanians it will be fine.
6. Thank you so much Mr. Ambassador.
Thank you.
NOTE - A version of the article was published in MEDIUM.
TIBERIU DIANU has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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