NATO Romania

STRATEGIC CONNECTOR: ROMANIA AT THE BLACK SEA

Black Sea region is an area of extremely dynamic geopolitical processes. As a dynamic vector of democratic security, economic stability and prosperity, Romania has a fundamental strategic interest in having the wider Black Sea area stable, democratic and prosperous, tightly connected to the European and Euro-Atlantic structures. Sitting at the crossroads of three areas of paramount importance - Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia - the Black Sea region is a main transit area for energy resources and, at the same time, an important place of asymmetric risks and hotbed of conflict, impacting greatly on the Euro-Atlantic security.

Far from being a mere buffer zone or a peripheral area, the Black Sea region is a connector of strategic importance, sitting in the middle of a corridor that links the Euro-Atlantic community (as a security provider and energy consumer) with the Middle East area - the Caspian region - Central Asia (as an energy provider and security consumer). From the energy security point of view, the Black Sea region is the main transit area and, to a great extent, a source of energy that is consumed in Europe, while the forecasts speak of a substantial increase in its importance in the following decades.

From the security challenges standpoint, the region accurately mirrors the new risks and threats and is a potentially dangerous in which to test them. Among those worth mentioning are: international terrorism; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and delivery means; local conflicts; illegal trafficking in weapons, ammunition and explosives; drug-trafficking; illegal migration and trafficking in human beings; ineffective government affected by endemic corruption and organized crime, characterized by a democratic deficit and the inability to properly exercise the prerogatives conferred to the sovereign countries.

The Black Sea region is Europe’s richest and, probably, one of the densest parts in the world, in terms of separatist conflicts, tense situations and disputes. The separatist conflicts in eastern region of Republic of Moldova (the Dniester region), in the eastern and northern regions of Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia), in the west of Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh), in the south of the Russian Federation (Chechnya and other republics or autonomous regions in Northern Caucasus), other smaller and less intense separatist movements, as well as tensions related to disputes over territory or borders, pose serious threats to the security of the region and run the danger that violent confrontations reignite.

Cross-border crime is a highly visible negative hallmark of the region. Criminal activities of this nature, conducted on land and by sea, are connected with international terrorist groups and favored by separatist regimes and the illegal presence of foreign troops on the territory of the new democracies. Cross-border crime might seriously impact on the governance of some states in the region, bring about instability and anarchy, favor violence and create the danger of interruption to vital energy flows.

Countering these risks and threats is an essential responsibility of the states neighboring the Black Sea. These countries have to be, first and foremost, aware of the existence of these perils and are obliged to develop internal, foreign and security policies able to neutralize the negative phenomena inside their own borders and to refrain from supporting, in any way, separatist movements, extremist or terrorist organizations, and criminal activities. A common security threats assessment could be a realist assumption for any progress in the area. The countries bordering the Black Sea must actively and effectively cooperate, promote confidence-building measures in the region and fulfill, in good faith, their obligations to reduce their conventional weapons and withdraw the troops that are illegally stationed on the territory of other states.