ABSTRACT
From the Romanian perspective there is some dispute over what "developing" means that has centered around the tendency since the late 1970s for Romanian commentators to distinguish between "developing countries" and nonaligned states. Michael Radu has speculated that this might imply that in the Romanian view only the radical countries of the South, those tilting towards socialism, can be considered developing, while nonaligned is a much more limited category. There are many things that can be said about the Romanian-Third World connection, but as so often with Romanian politics that connection is not as straightforward as it seems at first. That is partly because calculated ambiguity is standard practice in Bucharest's foreign policy; a conscious tactic designed to maximize options. Romanian differences with Moscow were a function of Gheorghui-Dej's refusal to allow Romania to be turned into a de facto internal colony of the socialist camp.
