31 mart. 2008

HRH prince Radu: Madame Chair, distinguished members of the board, ladies and gentlemen. For the Crown Princess and myself, it is a great privilege and an exceptional occasion to address you today in Los Angeles during these wonderful 14 days that we are going to spend in the State of California and then the State of Nevada. As a Special Representative of the Romanian Government, I would like to present the board and to all of you the best wishes on behalf of the Romanian Government and of the Romanian people. We are very lucky to have had the United States and Romania a very long and important relationship.

In the 19th century, during the reign of the first Romanian King, Charles I, we established diplomatic relations between the two countries. And since then, more than one century passed and Romania has been, during the difficult time of the first and the second world war, directly and exceptionally helped by the United States of America. First of all to achieve its unification in 1918 after the first world war, and then after ’89 when Romania re-became an independent and democratic country. The United States played a major role in this important process, as much as the United States was helpful and important for all the countries in my region, which was called at some stage the ‘beyond the iron curtain’ world. But this exceptional relationship that we enjoy is neither by chance nor related only to the recent times.

 

After the second world war, my father-in-law, King Michael of Romania, who was the last democratic leader to leave the country in 1948 after the soviet invasion in Romania and in the region, he spent 50 years in exile trying to help our part of the world to re-become dignified, democratic, and prosperous. And in this perspective, King Michael has been, for 50 years, a regular visitor of the United States and promoter of democracy and of the values that both the United States and Western Europe shared in what we call today the Euroatlantic world. King Michael is probably the last surviving head of state having led a country in the second world war, and personally awarded by president Truman with the Legion of Merit. Somebody who met both Truman, Eisenhower and the other leaders of the world, such as Churchill and the leaders of France and the other countries involved on the side of the allies in the second world war.

 

Since 2001, when our country recognized the merit of the Royal Family and integrated our family in the Romanians present activities, I started to undertake this mission as a Special Representative of the Romanian Government. And together with the Crown Princess, my wife, we tried very hard inside Romania, in Europe, and in the rest of the world, to promote the most important what we believe they are the most important interests of our country. Thus, in 2006, exactly two years ago, we started a new project called ‘The Friendship Tour’. And our intention is to be able to come to every single State of the United States to spend one week going from town to town, from city to city, and meet with local authorities, young people in universities, local business, and local media and to try to put Romania on the map and in the soul and minds of people who have been always for us, even from far away, a very important model for the present and for the future times. Thank you very much for your hospitality.

 

HRH Princess Margarita: Madame Chair, members of the board of supervisors, thank you for your warm welcome. I’ve always felt very much at home here in the United States of America. This is my first time in Los Angeles, and it’s no exception. I think it’s not only the weather that I like, but the people. And I’m so impressed by how all these years, you know, I work in charity in Romania, I have my own charity, but I’ve worked a lot with other charities, the generosity of the american people towards my people, especially its children, is absolutely something that’s kept us going for all these years, and I wish to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your generosity. And another thing that impresses me so much every time I’m here is your faith and your patriotism. And I think this is an enormous and very important example for the world. Thank you so much.