Relations with Albania and Yugoslavia differed from those with the other
Eastern European communist regimes, as neither participated in the
Warsaw Pact and both had also pursued policies independent of the Soviet
Union. In 1960 Albania sided with the Communist Chinese in the
Sino-Soviet dispute and withdrew its ambassadors from all the Eastern
European countries after Khrushchev denounced the Albanian regime at the
Twenty-second Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in
1961. The Romanian position of neutrality in regard to the Sino-Soviet
dispute opened the way for improved relations with Albania, and the
Ceausescu government returned its ambassador to Tirana in 1964.

The Ceausescu regime has maintained that the policies of the Albanian
Communists (the Albanian Workers' Party) are legitimate manifestations
of socialism developed according to national needs. Common fears of
Soviet designs against their countries after the Warsaw Pact invasion of
Czechoslovakia brought about increased cooperation between the two
governments.

Relations with Yugoslavia had progressed along lines of mutual interest
throughout the period of the Ceausescu regime, and close cooperation had
developed between the Romanian and Yugoslav heads of state as they
sought each other's support for their independent foreign policies. The
PCR was the only Eastern European party to send a delegation to the
Ninth Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in 1969.

Although the two governments indicated almost identical views on all
important international issues, they manifested widely divergent
approaches to domestic affairs and, owing to the fact that their
economies are not complementary, economic relations between the two
countries have not kept pace with political relations. Efforts to
increase economic relations resulted in a new five-year trade agreement
in 1971 designed to increase the exchange of goods by 128 percent in the
period covered. Cooperation between the two states was also demonstrated
in the joint construction of the Iron Gate hydroelectric station on the
Danube (see ch. 3).

During 1971 the PCR renewed efforts to promote cooperative relations
among the Balkan states. The regime emphasized that the geographical
isolation and the socialist systems of Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia,
and Romania make for common interest in increased economic, political,
and cultural cooperation. Observers of Eastern European pol