Romania needs National Strategy regarding Black Sea, Senate's Pauliuc says

The President of the Senate Defence Committee, Nicoleta Pauliuc, believes that Romania needs a National Strategy regarding the Black Sea, after the US Congress adopted, last week, a document with the same theme, Agerpres informs.

"The strategy of the United States of America for the Black Sea (approved on December 24, 2022 by the US Congress) represents a natural evolution, following the adoption of the new NATO Strategic Concept (at the Madrid Summit in the summer of 2022), through which the Black Sea was declared an area of strategic interest. Obviously, an important impulse also came from the Romanian diplomatic corps, which campaigned for such a solution, intended to strengthen NATO's Eastern Flank (...) Analysing from another perspective, the decision of the US Congress regarding the Strategy for the Black Sea shows us that the strategic partnership between our countries is working at maximum capacity. Romania is no longer a peripheral country on NATO's orbit," said Pauliuc, according to a statement from the Senate sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

The PNL senator points out that "Romania fully assumes the status of a pillar of the North Atlantic Organization" and is glad that the US allies support this "hot" strategic point on the geopolitical map of the world.

"The decision of the US Congress must be put in an overall picture, in which Romania will become a regional energy hub in a fourfold context: a) the start and acceleration of gas exploitations from the Black Sea Continental Platform; b) the US investments in nuclear technology in Romania; c) the memorandum of October 2022 signed with the representatives of the Azerbaijani company SOCAR, for a joint investment in a liquefied natural gas facility at the Black Sea; d) the agreement of December 17, 2022, signed in Bucharest by the leaders of Romania, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Hungary, regarding the construction of a submarine electric cable under the Black Sea to transport Azerbaijani green energy to Europe," Pauliuc said.

The President of the Senate Defence Committee believes that "all these favorable developments in the economic area are doubled by the increase in NATO's military presence in Romania".

"However, we must not take any break. It is vital that 2023 be a year in which Romania acts intelligently to benefit to the maximum from this huge opportunity," Pauliuc says.

The senator emphasised that Romania must consider a National Strategy regarding the Black Sea, the analysis of the 2011 resolution of the European Parliament regarding an EU Strategy for the Black Sea, followed by appropriate financing and updating by the Black Sea riparian countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine) of the Strategic Action Plan (dating from 1996).

"These directions of action represent a plan that, if we seriously adhere to it, could bring prosperity for Romanians, energy independence and guarantee national security," added Pauliuc.