rnational support for the country's
foreign policy. Manescu had developed broad international contacts
during his term as president of the twenty-second session of the UN
General Assembly in 1967.

Administration of Foreign Affairs

The Council of Ministers is charged with the coordination and
implementation of foreign policy and exercises these responsibilities
through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign
Trade. Since decisionmaking powers rest in the top echelons of the
party, the ministries function almost exclusively as administrative
agencies. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the
implementation of party directives in the country's foreign diplomatic
relations and in the areas of educational, cultural, and scientific
relations with other states and with international organizations. The
Ministry of Foreign Trade functions as the central organ for the
country's international trade and economic activities.

In early 1972 the organizational structure of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs remained essentially the same as it had been established after
the adoption of the new Constitution of 1965. The ministry is organized
into six geographical departments, twelve functional directorates, and
three administrative offices. The geographical directorates are
designated as: the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary;
the Balkans and the Near East; Western and Central Europe; North America
and South America; Africa and the Middle East; and the Far East and
Southeast and South Asia.

The functional directorates are: international organization; cultural
relations; political synthesis; economic relations; legal and treaties;
consular; press; protocol; personnel; finance, accounting, and work
organization; technical and administrative; and secretariat. The three
administrative offices are designated the Chancellery, the Office of
Services to the Diplomatic Corps, and the Legal Office. The entire
organization functioned under the direction of the minister of foreign
affairs and five deputy ministers.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade is organized into nine bureaus, a legal
office, and an office for protocol. Bureaus listed under the ministry in
1970, the latest year for which information was available in early 1972,
included: economic relations with socialist countries; economic
relations with developed capitalist countries; economic relations with
emerging nations; currency and