Romania ultimately signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers in 1918 — soon after, Ionescu received approval to leave for Paris and London. While passing through Ploieşti, his native city, he was reportedly booed by a crowd of opponents. After the Armistice with Germany, which signaled a change in fortunes, he began actively campaigning for the international recognition of Romania's union with Transylvania as advanced by the Romanian National Party, creating the National Romanian Council, grouping politicians from several regions, many of whom had opposed the separate peace (these included the Transylvanians Octavian Goga and Vasile Lucaciu), and supporting an anti-Hungarian alliance of Balkan states that played a part in creating the Little Entente.