Romania is the EU and NATO member with the longest border with Ukraine and also a Black Sea riparian country, a region affected by the present war, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis told the students of the prestigious Columbia University where he was attending the World Leaders Forum.
For this reason, Iohannis went on to say, Romania’s prospect over the impact of the war in its strategic vicinity and at global level is relevant. According to Iohannis, Russia expected a weak international community and a Ukraine, which was supposed to comply with Kremlin’s demands. However, through their threats and the subsequent use of force, the Russians have got the opposite effect. According to Radio Romania special correspondent, president Iohannis says that by invading Ukraine, Russia tries to bring back revisionism to international relations as well as the spheres of influence in the global and regional politics.
Moscow, he says, is using outdated concepts such as the so-called right of the great powers in order to impose the foreign policy directives on smaller states and is at the same time attacking democratic values and the rule-based world order.
The Romanian president has also told the students that Romania, as a strategic partner of the US and a NATO ally is now at the highest security level in its recent history. „We are now having a more coherent approach focused on several domains concerning defence in the Eastern Flank. We have resorted to concrete measures to step up cooperation with other Black Sea allies, mainly with the United States of America” – Iohannis went on to say.
However, Ukraine must win the war commenced by Russian Federation and no peace can exist without the restoration of the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of this country. „All those who committed atrocious crimes in Ukraine and against Ukraine must be brought before court. And all the countries with the same outlook have agreed that we must carry on our support for Ukraine” – the Romanian president pointed out. Both Ukraine, and the neighboring Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian speaking country, must receive complete support for their integration into the European Union, Iohannis added. Earlier during the General Assembly of the UN the head of the Romanian state said this war proved that the Black Sea needs more attention at the global level, being of strategic importance for the Transatlantic security. He pledged that Romania would continue to ease the shipments of the Ukrainian grain to the world’s markets as they are essential for the world food security.
(Bogdan Matei, Radio Romania International)
