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NATO membership status and the allied presence on our territory consolidate the most robust security guarantees we have benefited from in history, declared, on Wednesday, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, in his intervention at the "Romanian Military Thinking - Dynamics of security architecture in the Extended Black Sea Area, in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and the new NATO Strategic Concept" international conference, told Agerpres.
Speaking about the relationship of the countries on the Eastern Flank of NATO with Russia, Aurescu said:
"We find the Russian aggression a threat to our way of life and our values, but we cannot say that it was unexpected. We have been talking for a long time about the possibility of worsening the situation, and it drew the attention of our allies, our partners regarding the continuous escalation of the situation of security in the region. The countries on NATO's Eastern Flank have a long and complicated relationship with Russia. Our history related to Russia is very long and marked, in a large part, by Moscow's desire to impose its sphere of influence, to our detriment," Aurescu pointed out.
The Romanian diplomacy's head added that Moscow's actions, which began in 2008 with the invasion of Georgia and culminated in the illegal aggression against Ukraine, "unfortunately confirmed this behavior."
"However, the international community's reaction to Russia's war against Ukraine was exceptional. The Euro-Atlantic community acted fully united, fully in solidarity in the desire to defend democracy by all available means, to increase the resilience of our societies," he pointed out, adding that the decisions from the extraordinary NATO Summit in March this year and from the NATO Summit in Madrid "are part of the robust allied response to Russia's actions".
"First of all, it expresses our objectives, related to the consolidation of the deterrence and defense posture on the Eastern Flank that have been constantly presented by Romania since the crisis of 2014," Aurescu assessed.
Referring to the countries affected by Russia's influence in the region, Bogdan Aurescu said:
"If we look around, we see that the Black Sea region was the area with the most countries affected by Russia's interests. The Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine experienced this. People suffer from this cause, as we see in Ukraine," adding that, in order to keep peace and security in the Black Sea region, support policies for the three states are needed.
"If they remain in a state of continuous vulnerability, they will be a temptation for their much stronger neighbour, who will at best keep them in a state of dependence. (...) We must make a long-term effort to help these countries become able to freely choose their future. Such an approach will contribute to a safer and more stable Black Sea region, which will influence Euro-Atlantic security as a whole," Bogdan Aurescu pointed out.
