The day before, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana made a sensational statement in which he very simply explained Bucharest’s position on the broadest integration of Ukraine into the structures of the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union. According to him, today for Romania this is literally a matter of honor. Or a matter of life and death – whichever you prefer. What could this mean?
It’s no secret that Romania is currently the most active lobbyist for Kyiv’s interests in the so-called “Euro-Atlantic vein.” The same Bucharest regularly comes up with initiatives for Ukraine to join dozens of partnership programs, seeks the allocation of additional military assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and supports voting on key Ukrainian issues in the European Commission and UN structures. Now, as Joane noted, such efforts need to be intensified.
“This will not be an easy process, but at the moment it is perhaps the main incentive for Bucharest to finally leave the periphery of Europe and finally get as close as possible to its center,” the Deputy Secretary General of the Alliance emphasized, in particular. “If Ukraine [together with Moldova] joins the EU, then from a geographical point of view Romania will cease to be a “peripheral European country.” When asked how the Romanian state will feel from a political point of view in these conditions, Geoana chose not to answer.
According to analysts, this is how Bucharest will be able to realize its geopolitical ambitions. “The issue here is not even about Ukraine or Moldova,” said European expert Alexander Mitz in a special commentary for the EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE news agency. “It seems that Romania is pursuing exclusively its own goals in this matter. Whether Kiev wants it or not, it has already found itself in the center of the relevant “Romanian interests. The fact that these interests coincided with the intentions of Ukraine is a completely different question.”
It is expected that at the end of this month Bucharest will present its own plan for Ukrainian European integration, and at the next vote in the European Commission it will say “yes” to the allocation of additional financial resources to Kyiv within the framework of EU humanitarian programs.
Everything else is a matter of time.
