Radio România Internațional

Tag: Black Sea region

  • How has NATO’s strategy for Europe evolved over 2022-2024?

    How has NATO’s strategy for Europe evolved over 2022-2024?

    On the sidelines of the 75th anniversary summit in Washington, NATO leaders pledged to strengthen collective defense, highlighting the substantial progress reported on defense spending, forward defense, high-readiness forces, command and control, collective defense exercises.

     

    The ongoing conclift in Ukraine, with its specific challenges for the Eastern Flank and the Black Sea region, has determined NATO allies and partners to continuously adapt the Alliance’s strategy for Europe. Today’s edition offers some precious insight shared by General David Petraeus, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and commander of US Forces Afghanistan.

     

  • The Black Sea region – a strategic objective for regional resilience

    The Black Sea region – a strategic objective for regional resilience

    The Euro-Atlantic Resilience Center in Bucharest hosted the first conference in the Resilience Talks this year, titled The Contest over the Black Sea. Challenges to the Resilience of Bordering States.

    The event’s special guest was Thomas-Durell Young Ph.D. from the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and currently an academic adviser to the president of the Defense Security Cooperation University in Washington DC.

  • Frozen conflicts in the Black Sea region

    Frozen conflicts in the Black Sea region

    The
    Black Sea region links Europe to the Caspian area, the Middle East and Central
    Asia and is NATO’s southeastern flank. As such, it is a key region for NATO.
    The situation here is complex, given that the Black Sea region is facing security
    and stability challenges. One of the most important conflicts with significant
    impact on the entire region is the one pitting Russia against Ukraine. The conflict
    broke out in 2014, with the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by the
    Russian Federation.



    On the other hand, the situation in Transnistria, a
    Russian-speaking breakaway region east of the Moldova, remains tense. Moldova lost control of Transnistria in the
    wake of a civil war where the Russian Army backed the separatists. Georgia, in
    turn, lost control of Abkhazia. The separatist region proclaimed its independence
    in 1992, also after a civil war, with support from the Russian military.
    Another territory in Georgia, South Ossetia, in turn proclaimed its
    independence in 2008, after the Russian army intervened on the side of the
    separatists. On a visit to Washington to consolidate security cooperation with
    the United States,



    Romania’s Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, expressed
    Romania’s position with respect to the Black Sea region. The Romanian official
    warned, during a public talk at NATO, against frozen conflicts, saying Romania
    has been arguing in favor of consolidating NATO security on the Black Sea for
    the last two decades. All that happens in the Black Sea does not remain in the
    Black Sea, it has a major impact on transatlantic relations in general, Bogdan
    Aurescu argues. The Minister pointed out that, historically, the region has always
    been at the crossroads of several interests intertwining – imperial aspirations,
    conflicting ideologies, competing trade interests, being a bridge between Asia
    and Europe. In the last three decades, the Black Sea has been an area of
    conflict, and this trend remains, unfortunately, if we look at what
    happened this year, for example, in April, when we witnessed the massive
    deployment of Russian forces, perhaps the largest such deployment since the
    Cold War, in the region, with a lot of equipment left there, the Romanian
    official said. Bogdan Aurescu said this is a factor of concern which requires
    everyone’s attention, not just countries in the region.



    The Romanian Minister
    for Foreign Affairs believes that the US military presence in the region, in
    terms of both numbers and equipment, must be increased not just in Romania, but
    on the southern part of NATO’s eastern flank, where the military presence is
    more fragile compared to the north. (VP)

  • Navy Day and the Black Sea region

    Navy Day and the Black Sea region

    For the first
    time, the Romanian Navy Day was this year celebrated in several port cities, as
    well as in Bucharest. A grand naval show was held in Constanta, the largest
    port on the Romanian Black Seacoast. Attending the show, President Klaus
    Iohannis congratulated the sailors and said Romania cannot be a truly important
    player in the region without a powerful army, which should include a
    well-equipped and well-trained navy, capable of withstanding any challenge. We
    are witnessing the buildup of a new geostrategic context, whose evolution is
    hard to anticipate, the president went on to say. Klaus Iohannis said that Romania
    continues to be a source of stability and a regional provider of security. This
    status comes with genuine benefits, Klaus Iohannis said.


    It is key that our country should have the capacity and wisdom to use
    our strengths in order to consolidate our role within NATO and our status as a
    reliable strategic partner of the United States of America.


    The president
    also argued in favor of strengthening international cooperation, as an
    alternative to consolidating global peace and security. Klaus Iohannis believes
    that focusing on the economic dimension of international cooperation could
    bring real benefits to countries in Southeastern Europe, as well as to other
    interested parties. The Black Sea region continues to represent an important
    bridge between Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, with the possibility
    of capitalizing on the Danube as a natural transit corridor between Central
    Europe, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. Without minimizing military
    cooperation and the geostrategic security of the region, foreign policy analyst
    Stefan Popescu told Radio Romania that our country stands a good chance of
    becoming an important regional player. Stefan Popescu:


    To have a functional Black Sea policy, we must focus on the port of Constanta,
    the largest on the Black Sea. We must focus on our civilian fleet, which is
    quite deficient. To become a truly regional player, Romania must develop a
    Black Sea policy, which I believe is something we have failed to recognize. A
    state is robust not just by means of its military, but through a sound and
    powerful society, a robust economy, good exports and a culture that appeals to
    the entire region.


    At military
    level, Defense Minister Mihai Fifor announced, on the sidelines of the events
    in Constanta, that the Government next week will vote the go-ahead for the
    purchase of the mobile anti-ship missile system, a type of coastal artillery
    that will enhance Romania’s naval security.



    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • NATO, focus on the Black Sea and the Balkans

    NATO, focus on the Black Sea and the Balkans

    As early as last week the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis had announced that one of Romania’s priorities at the NATO summit was the consolidation of the Alliance’s eastern flank, an issue which is the focus of the current summit hosted by Brussels. Two of the Alliance’s partners in the region, Ukraine and Georgia, are participating, on the sidelines of the summit, in separate, distinct talks related to security developments in the Black Sea region. This is a first for the two former Soviet republics, as, for the past decade, they have been both the target of military aggression from Russia, whose appetite for new territories seems to have been renewed.



    At the NATO summit held in Bucharest in 2008, the leaders of the Alliance had already hailed Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, and, on Wednesday, they reiterated their decision to support the two states on their way to NATO membership in a common statement. NATO officials became aware of the progress reported by Georgia in its preparations for accession, which strengthen its defense and inter-operability capabilities, adding that an independent, sovereign and stable Ukraine was key to Euro-Atlantic security. NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated that the Alliance firmly condemned the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and called on Moscow to withdraw its troops and to cease its support for the rebels in eastern Ukraine. President Iohannis represented Romania at the NATO summit in Brussels:



    “Upon NATO’s initiative, this is a special meeting devoted to the Black Sea area, which is also being attended by Ukraine and Georgia. We believe that one of the results of the summit will be an increased focus on the Black Sea region as well as an increased NATO presence in the region, which is very important for Romania. And the multinational Brigade will be even more important because it will become a permanent Brigade, which will be a major pole for security in our region, actually in the entire region.”



    President Iohannis also added that the Alliance should maintain its so-called ‘open-doors’ policy and that Romania was fully supporting NATO’s decision to send an official invitation to North Macedonia to join the Alliance. After Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro, Macedonia would become the 4th of the 6 ex-Yugoslav republics to join NATO. And this would be an additional guarantee for stability in the Balkan region, which, two decades ago, witnessed the bloodiest massacres in post-war Europe. The Romanian President also pointed out that it was necessary to equitably share tasks within NATO and, in this context, Romania wanted to be a provider of security for the entire region. It’s worth mentioning that only 8 of the 29 NATO member states are allotting or are going to allot 2% of the GDP for defense by the end of 2018. And Romania is one of these countries.


    (Translated by L. Simion)

  • Romania, Russia and the Black Sea

    Romania, Russia and the Black Sea

    The Russian Federation considers Romanias idea to deploy NATO troops permanently to the Black Sea as provocative, the head of Russian diplomacy was quoted by NEZAVISIMAIA GAZETA as saying. Serghei Lavrov has underlined that all decisions concerning this region, particularly those on security issues, must be made by the Black Sea riparian countries. Lavrov has voiced hope that “the situation will return to normal and the Romanian partners will reach the correct conclusion.



    Russia – the head of the diplomacy in Moscow went on to say – pronounces itself firmly against any violations of the 1936 Montreux Convention clearly regulating the tonnage and the period of uninterrupted presence in the Black Sea of the military vessels belonging to the non-riparian countries. Lavrov stood for reactivating the programmes within the cooperation initiative between the fleets of the Black Sea countries, ‘blackseafor.



    According to Lavrov, the activity of this organisation has been frozen de facto mainly at Romanias initiative. Moscows reactions come several months after a proposal by Romanian president Klaus Iohannis regarding the deployment of a permanent NATO force to the Black Sea. The proposal, which at first sparked various reactions among the allies, was later taken under advisement by NATO officials. At the NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Brussels in October, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that an increasing number of members had announced their contributions to strengthening the organizations eastern flank to cope with Russias threats at the Baltic and the Black Seas.



    Stoltenberg pointed out that NATO members had confirmed their readiness to deploy ground, naval and air forces to Romania in a bid to strengthen NATO presence in the Black Sea region. These countries are Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and the United States. On that occasion NATO hailed the numerous contributions by its members to the four battalions it is going to deploy in 2017 to the three Baltic countries and Poland against the rising tensions with Moscow.



    The progressive deployment to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland of the four battalions, 1,000 strong each, was decided at NATOs last summit in Warsaw in July. The move was in line with the other measures taken by the Alliance in order to appease the concerns of Russias NATO neighbors, whose vulnerability increased after the Russian – Ukrainian conflict and Moscows annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March 2014. Both NATO and Romanian officials have repeatedly underlined the Alliances intention not to trigger but to prevent conflicts with Russia.


    (Translated by D. Bilt)