Bucharest, Sept 2 /Agerpres/ - Romanian diplomats should consider economic diplomacy as one of the main foreign policy instruments available to serve the national interests of Romania, Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu told the annual meeting of Romanian ambassadors and consuls general on Tuesday in Bucharest.

'The time has come for us to go beyond the traditional promotion of national corporations, attracting foreign investment and mediating between the national and foreign private economic players, which we traditionally call commercial diplomacy,' said Comanescu.

He added that Romania's diplomacy should take a step forward toward a modern and pragmatic economic diplomacy that entails negotiating the global architecture for economic governance, setting up standards for international economic organisations, managing complex alliances and coalitions of parties with specific interests, modelling social, economic and environmental policies.

'I want you to prove, as missionaries of Romania's economic diplomacy, your capacity of influencing economic policies, be them national or international, in the countries or within the international organisations where you are accredited, so that we may achieve our strategic economic objectives,' the foreign minister told the attendees.

According to the Romanian chief diplomat, the essential traits of Romanian diplomatic activity in this relation should be 'efficiency, continuity, consistency, credibility, competitiveness and networking.' Thus, Romanian diplomats should become more involved in establishing contacts with business circles in the countries where they are appointed, getting in touch with the business people of the Romanian Diaspora communities, exchanging specialist information with the European Commission delegations and diplomatic representation offices of other EU member states.

Likewise, Comanescu called for better coordination between ambassadors and the attachés of the Foreign Trade Office, and for each ambassador to come up with a major economic project to be carried out in 2009 in cooperation with the MAE central offices.

Minister Comanescu warned that these new requirements do not entail neglecting the traditional role of attracting foreign investment and promoting the interest abroad of national companies. He urged the ambassadors to communicate to an equal extent with state-owned companies, large companies, small and medium-sized ones that want to start up business on a foreign market.

Comanescu said the context for the new activity of the Romanian economic diplomats is given by Romania's European Union membership, which provides huge opportunities for development and also challenges to meet, which, if successfully tackled, could help reduce the development gap separating Romania from the older EU member states.

'Romania's strategic position on the main energy transmission routes to Europe and Romania's commitment to ensuring Europe's energy security, its position at the eastern borders of the EU, its strategic partnership with the US, active part in the UN and the dynamism displayed in regional involvement are but some of the arguments backing up our approach,' said Comanescu.

He also pointed to the need for Romania to recover economic ties with the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, South-East Asia and Latin America.

The annual meeting of Romanian ambassadors and consuls, organised by the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE), was held Tuesday and Wednesday under the theme 'An expanding economy, a dynamic diplomacy.'

This year's meeting had a working character and it will be carried out in workshops that will tackle such issues as the response of diplomacy to the current global economic challenges; energy diplomacy; promoting Romanian products on foreign markets; positioning Romania in the world's investment flows; the Lisbon Strategy; the part of public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy in the management of worldwide challenges and the conduct of political dialogue.

Working groups were also devoted to discussing the issues of the Romanian community in the European economic environment, consular activities and the guidelines requested to be followed for Romania's accession in the future to the Schengen Area. Attending the conversations during the meeting will also be officials for the governmental and non-governmental sectors, including officials for the business community.

There were 6 plenary sessions and 4 workshops attended by over 400 people.

Each section enjoyed significant information and documentation support and the presence of prestigious guests from the Presidential Administration, Government, Parliament, academia, the civil society and the foreign diplomatic corps accredited in Bucharest.

[Source: Romanian National News Agency AGERPRES