Distinguished guests,
I wish to thank His Excellency, Ambassador Muraru for the kind introduction and for hosting this exhibition dedicated to the saga of the gold reserve of the National Bank of Romania sent to Moscow and never returned.
The exhibition you have just seen and the books we have brought narrate in detail the story of the National Bank gold Treasure which began during the First World War. It was sent to Russia, an ally country at the time, for safe-keeping and return. In spite of strict and internationally recognized bilateral protocols, countersigned by both parties, it has never been returned.
I will not repeat what has already been told. Allow me, however, to present you this history from a very personal point of view. In September 1990, when I was a diplomat here at the Romanian Embassy in Washington, I was appointed governor of the National Bank of Romania. After the official nomination, I returned to Bucharest. My predecessor, governor Decebal Urdea, asked me to have a private meeting. We went to his office, soon to be my office. He opened a safe, took out an old dossier and handed it to me with trembling hands. It contained the original bilateral protocols - in Romanian, Russian and French - signed in 1916 and 1917, both by the government of Imperial Russia and the government of Romania. This dossier is still being kept in the vaults of the National Bank like a token and under the pledge that every governor will do everything in his power to bring back this precious Treasure. Governor Urdea told me that the dossier had been especially put together for the Genoa conference in 1922, where Soviet Russia was firmly asked to return all the valuables deposited in Moscow.
To this day I wonder how the post Second World War governors – especially those who served during the Soviet occupation and later during the communist era – managed to preserve the original dossier in the vaults of the National Bank. The documents are shown in the exhibition.
During my mandate I have personally presented the dossier to fellow governors and other officials who visited our central bank. One of the most memorable meetings in the ‘90s was with Jacques de Larosière, at the time president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. A remarkable personality of the international finance community, he was Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and later on governor of Banque de France.
Allow me to tell you how the meeting unfolded. He asked what I would do if the Russian authorities decided to return the gold reserve. I swiftly answered that I would bring it back to Romania. He wondered if I would sell it. I told him definitely not, as I could be hanged for that. The gold bears a symbolic value for the Romanian people. He asked whether I would store it in London. Definitely not, I said. I would keep it in Bucharest. Then what’s the difference between storing it in the vaults of the National Bank of Romania or having it in the vaults of the Kremlin, he asked me. The major difference, he answered to his own question, would reside in the fact that the international community is not aware that you have a valid claim, well documented by this dossier, over the successors of the Tsarist Empire: the USSR and Russia. Then I asked Mr. de Larosière what we should do until Russia returns the Romanian gold reserve. He advised we would have to promote, as often as we can, the valid claim comprised in this dossier.
I followed his advice. My colleagues and I have published a series of books, documenting this matter. We have expanded our approach to the diplomatic field, as per a Treaty signed on July, 4th 2003, between Romania and the Russian Federation, which provided the framework for renewed Romanian-Russian discussions on the matter of the Romanian Treasure in Moscow.
In the context of this Treaty, a joint Romanian-Russian Commission was established under the Joint Declaration Romanian and Russian Foreign Ministries to settle the issues stemming from the history of bilateral relations. The Commission has already held five meetings, the latest in Moscow, in November 2019. From Romania’s point of view, the most productive meeting so far, took place in March 2016, in Sinaia, when the final joint protocol stated that: ‘the documents submitted by Romania are authentic and equally binding as an international treaty and they certify that Romania deposited the valuables in its Treasure (including the NBR gold Treasure) in Russia (Moscow)’.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian party has turned down any form of dialogue regarding this matter. Consequently, we stepped into a new phase: we had to make this issue known among the European public and European decision-makers regarding the 91.5 tons of fine gold confiscated by the Bolsheviks in Russia.
In March 2024, in the European Parliament, the National Bank of Romania opened this exhibition which highlighted the proof that the NBR Treasure was sent for safekeeping to Russia. During the plenary meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on March, 14th 2024, a Resolution regarding the return of Romania’s National Treasure illegally appropriated by Russia, was debated and subsequently adopted, with a significant number of votes.
Let me repeat once more what this Resolution stipulates: ‘none of the outstanding 91.5 tons of fine gold, which are part of the reserves of the National Bank of Romania, have been returned and Calls on the Commission and the European External Action Service to include the return of the Romanian National Treasure on the diplomatic bilateral agenda governing EU-Russia relations once the regional context permits the resumption of political dialogue between the parties.’
Today we bring awareness regarding the NBR Treasure sent to Moscow to the American public, who, almost a century ago, in October 1926, welcomed Queen Marie of Romania with ‘a warm feeling of appreciation’, as she herself was writing down in her diary. As the people in the United States remembered her for years after her visit, we hope that you will be Romania’s heralds and tell the story of NBR gold and our commitment to bring it back home.
By the end of this week the exhibition will be in New York, kindly hosted by the Romanian Cultural Institute. We are committed to continue the efforts to bring forward this saga to the attention of the international fora.
I will end my brief address here, inviting you to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Thank you!
Washington, 30.10.2024