The reactions to the KimberlyGate scandal continue

   The mandate to represent the United States in Romania is held by the US ambassador to Romania, while representing Romania requires the endorsement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the approval of the prime minister, acting Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said on Monday."The mandate to represent the US is held by the US ambassador to Romania, Darryl Nirenberg. Of course, I have spoken to him in recent days. As for the visit of the US ambassador to Greece to Romania, it was a visit as part of a business community event, so effectively outside a mandate to represent or negotiate or engage with the institutions of the Romanian state. In fact, the event in question was a private event, not a public one," acting ForMin Toiu explained in a press conference.Regarding the subject that the US ambassador to Greece is said to have discussed in Bucharest, Oana Toiu said the Vertical Corridor was a priority for Romania."For Romania, the Vertical Corridor is a priority, as is our involvement as a transit country for at least two reasons. One of them concerns supporting the region so that it can reduce its dependence on energy sources from Russia. This has been Romania's position for more than four years. We are one of the first countries to have given up imports of Russian gas and we have also supported all other European countries doing the same, as a deterrent to the war on our border," she said.Toiu stressed that Romania had an interest in being a transit country "in order to ensure a stronger commitment from the United States to the region."Regarding the purchase of energy resources, she reiterated Romania's "very clear" position."We are currently the European Union's main natural gas producer. With the completion of the Neptun Deep project next year, the volume available to Romania for domestic consumption as well as potentially for sale to countries in the region will increase significantly, which means that we support diversifying energy procurement sources as long as the economic model justifies it in terms of price and anticipated volumes," Oana Toiu explained.According to the acting foreign minister, negotiations are conducted through official channels."In relation to Romania, for official discussions regarding the energy market (...) the people who have held this mandate over time and with whom we have held discussions have included Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, with whom Romania has held more than two or three bilateral meetings over time, one of them also attended by President Nicusor Dan (...) and the US ambassador to Romania," Toiu said.Thus, she explained, any Romanian state representative who wishes to advance an official discussion must request a formal mandate, while formal negotiating mandates originate with the relevant line ministries, require the endorsement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the approval of the Romanian prime minister."Outside official formats, private discussions should not touch on the Romanian state's negotiating positions, beyond conversations similar to those that can take place at any time in the public sphere," Oana Toiu said.***Prime minister-designate Siegfried Muresan said on Monday, in response to reports that the US may have been involved in the dismissal of the Bolojan Government, that Social Democratic Party (PSD) Chairman Sorin Grindeanu should say what was discussed at his meeting in March with the US ambassador to Greece."I don't know whether they conspired, but I also saw that video of Mr Grindeanu and several of his party colleagues with the ambassador, and I think it is useful for each of our listeners to watch that video, because that is not what a politician who honourably represents Romania internationally looks like. Indeed, it has something of a conspiracy about it and it is obvious that Mr Grindeanu and his PSD colleagues must tell us what they did, what they discussed and what objectives they pursued at those meetings. If they come and tell us that they merely had lunch between two private flights, that is an insufficient answer. The matter is extremely serious. My assessment is that the reports in the international press are only at the beginning, because from what I have seen there are many international opinion leaders discussing the subject and I fear this is only the beginning. Therefore, we need clarity, especially from the Romanian state representatives who were involved in such discussions," Muresan said on Digi FM private radio broadcaster.Social Democratic Party (PSD) Chairman Sorin Grindeanu rejected on Sunday the allegations that there had been an agreement between Romanian politicians and the United States to remove Ilie Bolojan from the post of prime minister and said that he had been dismissed as a result of the way he governed."The attempt to manipulate people with a so-called conspiracy with the Americans to remove the incompetent Bolojan belongs in the category of flat-Earth conspiracies. That is all the right-wing propaganda has left! To provoke bursts of laughter. The facts, however, are much simpler: it was not the Americans, the Russians, the Illuminati or some other secret order who brought down Bolojan, but more than 88% of Romanians who dismissed him because he governed very badly and drove Romania into the wall," Grindeanu wrote on Facebook.He said he supported the strategic partnership between Romania and the United States, which he considers the country's "most important" ally in NATO, as well as Romania's membership of the European Union.Save Romania Union (USR) MP Alexandru Dimitriu announced that he had filed a criminal complaint for treason against Social Democrats Sorin Grindeanu and Bogdan Ivan as well as Alliance for Romanians' Union (AUR) leader George Simion."I filed a criminal complaint for treason against Grindeanu, Simion and Ivan. They should be investigated for negotiating with a foreign power the subjugation and economic undermining of Romania. This cannot be left as it is. When the Romanian state is infiltrated at the highest level and party leaders sell Romania's sovereignty and economic security, we are indeed facing an act of treason punishable under criminal law," he wrote on Facebook on Saturday.