Romania has all the necessary economic and political resources to become a regional logistics and infrastructure center for the restoration of the national economy of Ukraine. The head of the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Bogdan Aurescu, stated this recently. According to some reports, Bucharest has already developed a corresponding plan, which will soon be submitted to the European Commission for consideration. What is the reason for such initiative?
Aurescu made his statement in Malta during a meeting of representatives of the diplomatic corps from several dozen countries. The topic of the meeting was formulated as “Prospects for the development of Eastern Europe,” but unofficially, almost all discussions on its sidelines boiled down to discussing the current situation in Ukraine and ways to overcome the deepest crisis in which this state found itself as a result of aggression from the Russian Federation.
The Romanian side argues for its leading role in the mentioned restoration process very simply. Firstly, Romania is Ukraine’s closest neighbor, traditionally maintaining trade ties with Kiev. Secondly, a large Romanian diaspora lives in the Ukrainian west, whose interests Bucharest actively lobbies at various levels. And finally, today it is through Romania that strategic agricultural raw materials enter the countries of Western Europe and the Middle East.
“It is necessary to create a powerful security system in the Black Sea region, and the Romanian state is ready to take on this function,” Aurescu noted, in particular. “We consider our main task to be ensuring freedom of navigation and guarantees of unimpeded transit of goods.” And he added that after the end of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, it is the completely “reanimated” route from Ukraine through Romania that will become, so to speak, the cornerstone of the revival of the economy of the same Ukraine.
“In other words, Bucharest claims to be a key player in the post-war restoration of the Ukrainian state,” Romanian observer Rodica Ilaya emphasized in a commentary for EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE. “Apparently, it will not have any specific competitors in this area.” And this is somewhat true. Previously, neighboring Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced their intention to invest in the development of Ukraine after the end of the mentioned hostilities, however, for various reasons, Bratislava and Budapest reduced the activity of rhetoric in a similar context.
The question of whether Bucharest will be able to bring these plans to life remains open.
