ted that, as long as the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is continued, the socialist
countries will be forced to maintain the Warsaw Pact.

CONDUCT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Policy Formation

The Constitution assigns to the Grand National Assembly the
responsibility for establishing the general line of foreign policy and
assigns its implementation to the Council of Ministers. It is the
Council of State, however, that is given the overall executive functions
of ratifying international treaties and establishing diplomatic
relations with other states. As the head of state, the president of the
Council of State is charged with representing the country in its
international relations.

In practice, however, the basic foreign policy decisions are made by the
Standing Presidium of the PCR rather than the Grand National Assembly.
Owing to the fact that the same men occupy leading positions in both
party and government, decisions reached in the Standing Presidium are
promulgated as decisions of the Council of State. Party spokesmen have
described the country's foreign policy as being the result of the
"unitary thinking and action of the leading party bodies based on the
principle of collective leadership" (see ch. 8; ch. 9).

Within the PCR, foreign policy decisions are channeled through the
Central Committee's directorate for international affairs, which in turn
transmits them in the form of directives to the appropriate government
agencies and oversees their implementation. A commission on foreign
policy in the Grand National Assembly functions largely to channel party
decisions to the assembly for its official approval.

As head of the PCR and president of the Council of State, Ceausescu
personally exercised the primary decisionmaking powers in matters of
foreign policy just as he did in domestic affairs. Observers of Eastern
European politics also ascribe influential roles in the determination of
foreign policy to Prime Minister Maurer and Foreign Minister Corneliu
Manescu.

Since coming to power in 1965 Ceausescu has been the dominant figure in
the political life of the country and its principal spokesman in
international affairs. Believing in the importance of personal
diplomacy, Ceausescu has made frequent visits to other nations and
cultivated personal relationships with other heads of state. The prime
minister and the minister of foreign affairs have also made frequent
visits to other states to foster inte