Romanian Academy President Ioan Aurel Pop on US visit, discusses leveraging cooperation with American institutions

President of the Romanian Academy Ioan Aurel Pop, who was on a visit to the US June 1 - 5, met with senior officials of the US National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the American Historical Association, Romania's Embassy to the US informed in a release. 

In talks with David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and Grant Harris, chief of the European Division of the Library of Congress, Ioan Aurel Pop approached the perspectives of developing bilateral institutional cooperation with a view to capitalizing on the impressive stock of volumes and heritage documents relevant to Romania's history and Romania - US relations, the release said. Meetings with Senior Vice-president with the Woodrow Wilson Center Robert Littwak and with Executive Director of the American Historical Association James Grossman were mainly aimed at leveraging Romania - US academic and scientific research cooperation. The President of the Romanian Academy also met with renowned strategic policy scientist Edward Luttwak, former advisor to the US Government and the US Army. 

At all the meetings, emphasis was placed on the symbolic charge of the Great Union Centennial and on the importance of adequately revealing and analyzing the key role played by the US in the historical moment of 1918; Romanian Ambassador to the US George Cristian Maior was present at all the milestone moments of the visit. 

The President of the Romanian Academy also participated in the international conference "The Rebirth of Europe: Celebrating the 100-Year Anniversary of the Paris Conference and the Creation of New States in Central/Eastern/Southern Europe," attended by historians, researchers, representatives of the academic and diplomatic milieu of the US, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. At the two-day event, Professor Ioan Aurel Pop presented the landmarks of the creation of the Romanian statehood, prior to 1918, emphasizing the free will expressed in favor of the union by the populations of the territories that joined Romania. 

At the same conference, reputed historian Dennis Deletant, Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, presented the details of Romania's participation in World War I, highlighting the main political, diplomatic and military actions undertaken by Romania in that period. 

In the closing address at the conference, Ambassador George Cristian Maior spoke of the major impact of US President Woodrow Wilson's vision of national self-determination for the peoples of Central and South Eastern Europe in the post-World War II context, which has led to the liberation of many nations from the domination of the great empires, the creation of new states, the achievement of the Great Union of the Romanians in a single state and the spreading of democracy and market economy in the region. Ambassador Maior also stressed that the same Wilsonian moral values and principles of freedom and democracy were at the basis of the 1989 liberation of the Eastern European nations from under Soviet domination and are today the pillars of the transatlantic relationship. 

The conference was organized by the Wilsonian Club, one of the most prestigious non-governmental organizations in Washington that keeps the political legacy of President Woodrow Wilson in the public attention and manages the Woodrow Wilson House Museum.