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Biggest security risk in the Balkans is supremacy of personal agenda of some politicians (senior official Fota).
The greatest risk for security in the Balkans is the supremacy of some interests of personal agenda of some politicians, to the detriment of the public, national interest, the secretary of state for Strategic Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iulian Fota, said on Friday in western Timisoara, during the Security Challenges in the Balkans 7th international conference, told Agerpres.
"There is a palpable danger, that personal agendas become more important than the public or national interest. We must be very careful here. Joining NATO and the EU are national, public interests, the countries and peoples as a whole will have to gain. Otherwise, if you follow personal agendas and act only on the basis of a small, narrow, sometimes political interest, there is no way it will turn out well in the medium and long term. Unfortunately, in the Western Balkans we have enough examples from the beginning of the '90s, when certain politicians went only on personal agendas and later we even had tragedies that happened as a result of this persistence only on personal agendas (...) Everyone must think about what is good for the people," said the secretary of state Iulian Fota.
The Romanian MAE official pointed out that we are in a very important context, in which the Russians attacked and invaded Ukraine, this act having multiple consequences including for the Western Balkans.
To maintain a climate of stability in the area, according to Fota, Romania contributes, first of all, through diplomatic effort.
The secretary of state added that the battle for joining NATO or the European Union, as each country wants, is won within the respective country.
The Timisoara conference is organized within the framework of the existing partnership between the Western University of Timisoara and the New Strategy Center, under the aegys of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has become an annual reference event that brings to the fore the old and new security challenges in the Balkans.
The event brings together Romanian and foreign officials, representatives from the academic and non-governmental sectors in Romania and abroad. The topics range from conventional and hybrid threats to resilience, regional economic perspectives, the role of foreign actors in the region, as well as the impact of the war in Ukraine and the post-pandemic context.
