Signing of Article 98 Agreement of the Rome StatuteJohn Bolton,
Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security
Remarks at the Romanian Foreign Ministry
Bucharest, Romania
August 1, 2002Thank you, Mr. Diaconescu, and it's a great pleasure to be here in Bucharest today. And I am very honored to participate in the signing ceremony that the Minister just referred to, concluding the first bilateral agreement between the United States and Romania to implement the provisions of article 98 of the Rome statute creating an international criminal court. I’ve had many pleasant dealings with the government of Romania before. I've never been to Bucharest, but it's a pleasure to come here on such auspicious occasion. I well remember the cooperation that the Government of Romania displayed during the Persian Gulf crisis in 1990, when Romania was a non-Permanent member of the Security Council. It was a difficult time in Romania's history, but the government then made a number of courageous decisions in support of the international community efforts to repel aggression in the Persian Gulf.
And I've often regretted I didn't have the chance to come here and say: Thank you personally on behalf of the United States for those efforts then, but at least I have the chance to come today and conclude this agreement and express our thanks on this issue.
The United States of course, is not a party to the Rome statute, and we have felt that it was very important to conclude these kinds of agreements on the mutual exchange of people between, in this case, the Government of Romania and the Government of the United States.
One of the foundations of the Rome statute is the principle of deference to national judicial systems. This is the notion of complementarity that’s embedded in the Rome statute. We think that these article 98 agreements reflect the deference that the Rome statute requires for national judicial systems. We do not think it does violence to those states like Romania that freely chose to become parties to the Rome statute. We respect those decisions, it's not a decision that we're going to make. But we think also it implements precisely what the Rome statute contemplates in article 98, that states and concludes these sorts of bilateral agreements. So, this is the first of what we hope will be many such agreements. It's an important step, we think, for both the United States and Romania, and I just want to say again to Minister Diaconescu on behalf of my government and your government, that we appreciate the spirit of cooperation in which we’ve worked to conclude this agreement. I hope, in both of our cases, that there's never a need to implement it. Certainly it’s consistent with the values that both governments share, that we abhor war crimes, of all kinds. Our military receive training and doctrine to avoid this, and it's part of our core national values that we both endorse. But in any event, because of the creation of this new institution, we have felt it important to proceed and this agreement with Romania marks the first one in what we believe to be a series, and it's a great opportunity, I think, in the structuring of this new institution. So, again, Minister, I want to thank you and your colleagues and look forward working with you in this area and a whole variety of other areas, and part of our strengthened bilateral relationship. Thank you very much.
Released on August 6, 2002
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