No Visa Waver For Romanians, Yet

On his way out of Romania, at the end of the NATO summit taking place in Bucharest, the US President George W. Bush had a 50 minutes meeting with Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, at the Government Headquarters in Victoria Palace.

Other four minutes were spent on media statements, with no questions taken from the press pool, and an impromptu meeting with former tennis player Ilie Nastase. The latter resulted in Bush inviting Nastase to lunch at the White House, as he recalled his father, President George Bush senior, was often playing tennis with Nastase.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, foreign affairs minister Adrian Cioroianu, defense minister Teodor Melescanu and PM adviser Stejarel Olaru were also present at the meeting.

Bush was generous in compliments and jokes extended to his hosts, but kept short of engaging the US in what Romanians really hoped for: a US visa waver and closure to the Teo Peter case [the Romanian rock star killed in a car accident by an American marine, in Bucharest]/

Bush said his trip to Bucharest was “great” even though the rainbow failed to come up in the skies this time around [in reference to the one gracing the skyline when he was delivering his speech in Bucharest, upon the country's acceptance into NATO, four years ago].

Bush also commended the authorities for the organization of the NATO summit and thanked the Bucharest dwellers for showing patience with the traffic restrictions enforced during the summit.

“I am envious of you for introducing the flat tax,” Bush told Tariceanu. “I wished I would have been able to do the same,” he added.

Bush gave no hope Romanians that a visa waver was in sight. However, he said closer monitoring and higher transparency of the process will be sought for. “It is difficult for Romanians to understand why they get a different treatment when it comes to the visas' processing. We will work with our government to see why the rejection quota is so high for Romanian applicants,” Bush said, referring to the 30% rejection rate. The two officials also said a foundation would be set up to grant scholarships to Romanian students studying in the United States.

Tariceanu told Bush that he dreamed to see a strong US investment setting foot in Romania, and that his dream had been fulfilled with Ford buying the car-maker in Craiova. Tariceanu also told Bush that his grand-father was a Ford cars importer, back in the 1930s.

Tariceanu said last night on the public television channel that Bush promised a reasonable solution would be reached in the case of Teo Peter, the Romanian rock-star killed in a car-crash by a US marine. President Traian Basescu also had said Wednesday that he addressed the topic with Bush, and received the same answer.