Shevardnadze Promises Support to Romania : East Bloc: The Soviet foreign minister says he was ‘moved’ by talks with Bucharest’s new leaders. He says Moscow will increase oil and gas shipments.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze spent Saturday meeting with Romania’s new leaders and afterward said that he promised them the Soviet Union’s “political, material and moral support.”

He said that talks on economic cooperation will begin “in the near future” and promised Romania increased shipments of oil and natural gas to help its 23 million citizens get through the winter with homes heated to near-normal levels for the first time in years.

Shevardnadze said he was “moved” by his sessions with the National Salvation Front leaders and the provisional government, which will run the country until elections are held in April.

“Never before have I come to a country with such feelings of emotion which I experienced here today on Romanian soil,” Shevardnadze said. “The feeling is in my heart, and is always present whenever you make history. And there is no doubt that the Romanian revolution is a phenomenon in Romanian and world history.

“The people with whom I talked told me of the great hardships and difficulties the country must overcome to do away with the inheritance of the dictator.”

The Soviet foreign minister’s visit came 12 days after Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed by a military firing squad. In power for 24 years, Ceausescu’s grim police state was an obvious embarrassment to the Soviet Union throughout the period of Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s leadership.

“By comparison with the past,” Shevardnadze said, “I must say the atmosphere was absolutely purified. It was, if I may say so, full of oxygen and quite pleasant to be here.” He said that his meetings Saturday “will lead to better development.”

“The Soviet people have great enthusiasm for the (Romanian) revolution,” he said. “They have expressed their wish to support the revolution. This is in line with the process of perestroika ,” the Soviet term for restructuring.

“We do not accept dictatorship,” he said. “That is why we started our revolution, which is called perestroika. An important feature of our revolution is the democratization of politics, society and economic relations in our country. Dictatorship cannot be accepted, neither a Communist dictatorship nor a bourgeois one.”

Meeting with journalists, Shevardnadze said the Soviet Union has no intention of attempting to influence the direction of the new government or of the April elections.

“What specific parties will lead Romania is the business of the Romanians,” he said. “We shall always obey the will of the people.”

On the issue of the Soviet republic of Moldavia, Shevardnadze said restrictions will be lifted on both sides of the Romanian and Soviet border, allowing relatives on both sides to visit either country. “In that way,” he said, “some of the problems will be solved.”

Shevardnadze said the Soviets had sent Romania about 130 railroad cars of medical supplies, valued at 1.5 million rubles, and had offered 8,000 hospital beds.

He said Romania is receiving daily 22 million cubic meters of natural gas and that the Soviet Union will send 390,000 tons of oil this month. “We also intend to supply other sources of energy,” he said.

He added that the Soviet Union will no longer receive imports of meat and dairy products from Romania.

It was not clear just how much meat the Romanians have been supplying to the Soviets in recent years in exchange for oil, but Romanian stores have been barren for years, with meat and dairy products virtually non-existent for ordinary consumers.