New Foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu signed into office

Romanian President Traian Basescu signed on Tuesday the decree by which Foreign minister Teodor Baconschi is dismissed from office and the decree by which Cristian Diaconescu is named head of the Romanian diplomacy, the presidential administration has announced. The new minister was sworn in on Tuesday evening.

The government had previously submitted to the Presidency the proposal that the seat of Foreign minister be taken over by Cristian Diaconescu. Head of the National Union for the Progress of Romania, Diaconescu had served as Foreign minister in the first government run by Emil Boc in mid 2000’s, when he was a member of the now-in-opposition Social Democrats (PSD).

Diaconescu has served as chief negotiator for the treaty of the Romania-Ukraine state border treaty, for the framework political treaty between Romania and Russia, as deputy secretary general for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization and others.

He had also served as Justice minister when when ex-minister Adrian Nastase needed a European voice to negotiate and conclude negotiations on the Justice and Domestic Affairs chapter in Romania’s EU accession negotiations in 2004.

Diaconescu left the PSD in early 2010, when he opted to join a group of independent MPs.