Teodor Meleşcanu

Infobox_Politician


name = Teodor Viorel Meleşcanu
width = 138px
caption = Teodor Meleşcanu at a NATO meeting in Brussels, 2007
birth_date = Birth date and age|1941|3|10|mf=y
birth_place = Brad, Romania
residence = Bucharest
death_date =
death_place =
office = Minister of Foreign Affairs
salary =
term_start = 1992
term_end = 1996
president = Ion Iliescu
primeminister = Nicolae Văcăroiu
predecessor = Adrian Năstase
successor = Adrian Severin
constituency = Prahova County
office2 = Minister of Defense
salary2 =
term_start2 = April 5, 2007
term_end2 =
president2 = Traian Băsescu
primeminister2 = Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
predecessor2 = Sorin Frunzǎverde
successor2 =
constituency2 =
office3 = ad interim Minister of Justice
salary3 =
term_start3 = 15 January 2008
term_end3 = 29 February 2008
president3 = Traian Băsescu
primeminister3 = Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
predecessor3 = Tudor Chiuariu
successor3 = Cătălin Predoiu
constituency3 =
party = PNL (since August 2001)
otherparty = Party of Social Democracy from Romania (until 1997)
Alliance for Romania (1997 - August 2001)
religion =
occupation = diplomat, jurist
majority =
spouse = Felicia Meleşcanu
children = Marina Meleşcanu
website =
footnotes =

Teodor Viorel Meleşcanu (b. March 10, 1941) is a Romanian politician, diplomat and jurist. Currently serving as Minister of Defense and senator for the National Liberal Party (PNL), he was Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1992 and 1996. He was married to Felicia Meleşcanu, a jurist and Romanian Television journalist, until her death in January 2004.

Born in Brad, Hunedoara County, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest in 1964 and the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Geneva in 1968. In 1973, he obtained a doctorate in political science and international law from the University of Geneva.

Between 1966 and 1990 he held various diplomatic functions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In August 1990 he was named undersecretary of state in this ministry. Between November 1992 and November 1996 he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nicolae Văcăroiu's Party of Social Democracy (PDSR) government. In 1996 he campaigned as an independent for election to the Senate from the Prahova County electoral district. He was elected to that body, becoming president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Romania in the 1996-2000 legislature.

In 1997, Meleşcanu founded the Alliance for Romania ("Alianţa pentru România") party, together with several former members of the PDSR (Mircea Coşea, Iosif Boda, and others). He was elected president of this party in December 1997 and re-elected in March 2001. In January 2002, in the wake of the Alliance for Romania's merger with the PNL, Meleşcanu became first vice-president of the latter party. Since 2004, he has been a Liberal senator for Prahova, also being a vice-president in the Permanent Bureau of the Senate.

He is a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bucharest, and has written a substantial number of works and scientific publications dealing with international law and diplomacy.

External links

* [http://www.pnl.ro/index.php?id=pers&user=346 Teodor Meleşcanu's CV at the PNL site]
* [http://www.cdep.ro/pls/parlam/structura.mp?idm=64&cam=1&leg=2004&pag=1&idl=1&prn=0&par= Teodor Meleşcanu] on the site of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania