Rumania takes firm stand

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33113, 2 January 1973, Page 9

Rumania takes firm stand

<V.Z. Press Association —Copyright) VIENNA, January 1. Rumania, the most independent member of the East European Communist bloc, celebrated 25 years of Communist rule yesterday with rallies, speeches, and a sideswipe at the Soviet Union designed to avoid a repetition of her invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

A new National Defence : Bill, approved by the Rumanian Grand National Assem- ' bly on the eve of the republic's jubilee, outlaws a ' Czechoslovak - type Soviet Union invasion of Rumania. “It is the first time that acceptance, or recognition, of any action by a foreign State, j in time of peace or war,! which might injure the sover-I eignty, national indepen-I dence. and territorial integrity of Rumania . . . are banned by law,” the Rumanian national news agency, Agepres. reports. A Western diplomat in! Vienna commented: “What the Rumanians are saying, in effect, is that they don’t accept the Brezhnev Doctrine.” After the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. which ousted the lib-! era! leader, Mr Alexander) Dubcek. and reimposed or-! thodox communism, the Soviet Union Communist! Party First Secretary (Mr!' Leonid Brezhnev) declared that the Russians had the right to intervene militarily!; in East European States "to protect socialism.” Rumania publicly con-! demned its Warsaw Pact allies for invading Czechoslo-' vakia. and Rumanian officials privately expressed fears that i their Balkan nation, border-!

ing Russia and the Black Sea, might be the next to be occupied by Soviet Union troops. ________