BUCHAREST, June 20 -- President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic will arrive in Bucharest Tuesday for a two-day visit to Romania during which he is to sign an agreement on political and economic cooperation between the two countries, a foreign ministry official said Monday.
Havel is to hold talks with Romanian President Ion Iliescu and Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu, said Valeriu Tudor of the Romanian foreign ministry.
'The bilateral treaty would be a springboard for rediscovering common economic ground, hugely severed since the fall of Communism,' Tudor told United Press International.
In 1993, bilateral Czech-Romanian trade reached merely $40 million, down from $300 million registered in 1989, when the Eastern Europe's Council for Mutual Economic Aid, known as CMEA, was still functioning.
Bucharest is seeking better terms to balance trade. Czech exports to Romania total $30 million in electric power station technology, chemicals and iron-and-steel products, while Romania exports to the Czech Republic $8.5 million in mainly food and oil.
Romania's industrial production in 1993 plummeted 40 percent compared to the annual figure four years ago, and the Bucharest government plans to increase industrial cooperation with the Czech Republic.
'The Czech industry is still in good shape and they may help us restructure ours,' said Tudor.
Tudor said Havel's visit 'will mark an increased interest (in economic cooperation), underlined by extremely good political ties.'
(Edited by Nesho Djuric in Belgrade)
