Seeking a settlement with Hungary over the territorial issue, Ionescu traveled to Budapest on one occasion, meeting with Miklós Bánffy: vehemently stating his goal of incorporating the regions into the Kingdom of Romania, he was answered that Austria-Hungary intended to extend its influence to the Black Sea (Ionescu recounted: "we agreed that we could never agree"). Ionescu kept close contacts with Entente politicians, and notably with the prominent French Radical-Socialist Georges Clemenceau, who described him as "a great European, albeit Romanian down to his marrow, having for his country the highest and most legitimate of ambitions". At the time, he deplored Eleftherios Venizelos' deposition from the office of Prime Minister (October 1915).