Aurescu: Romania remains deeply concerned about unresolved conflicts in Black Sea region

Romania remains deeply concerned about the many unresolved, protracted, sometimes called "frozen" conflicts in the Black Sea region, which affect stability, security and cooperation in the area close to Romania, with an impact on our national security, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Monday.

He opened the conference on "Multilateralism and Peace," organized by the Romanian Diplomatic Institute on the occasion of celebrating 65 years of Romania's UN membership and 75 years of the Organization's existence, according to a Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) release sent to AGERPRES.

According to his speech, the head of Romanian diplomacy stressed that during the 65 years of UN membership, Romania "has pragmatically demonstrated its commitment to the development of the multilateral system, in accordance with the values of the UN Charter, both normatively, conceptually, through the contributions made by the Romanian diplomats in the debates and negotiations that took place within the Organization, as well as through concrete contributions to the peacekeeping missions, and through concrete support for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals."

Thus, he added, Romania "is an active promoter of participation in UN peacekeeping missions, a field in which there is a tradition of almost three decades."

"We have taken part in many such operations, including those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Mali or Kosovo, and Romania continues to pay attention to this segment of activity," he said, adding that Romania is firmly committed to maintaining the rule-based international order, consolidating the global architecture of arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament, while taking into account the security context and, of course, Romania's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.

"Romania remains deeply concerned about the multitude of unresolved, protracted, sometimes called 'frozen' conflicts in the Black Sea region, which affect stability, security and cooperation in the area close to Romania, with an impact on our national security. Recent developments, even ongoing ones as we can see, in our eastern neighborhood and the wider Black Sea area show, once again, that it is clear that we cannot speak of these conflicts as 'frozen conflicts,' but as conflicts whose resolution is still dragging on and whose temperature is variable, which becomes an instrument of influence for some actors with narrow, zero-sum geopolitical interests," the minister said.

In this context, he said, "Romania assesses that the issue of protracted conflicts must regain increased attention on the agenda of multilateral organizations."

"This is the reason why I have recently proposed, together with ten other EU member states, to put this issue on the agenda of a future Foreign Affairs Council. I also raised this issue recently at the NATO Ministerial meeting in the beginning of the month. I mentioned the importance of resolving frozen or protracted conflicts at the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in early December. I think it is important that this issue finds an increasingly prominent role on the agenda, both in Romania and abroad," said Bogdan Aurescu.

The minister also spoke about the management of the health crisis this year.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on all areas of our lives and has shown us what the vulnerabilities are nationally and internationally. At the same time, the pandemic has shown that a global response is needed to address global crises. In order to face the current crisis, manifested not only in terms of health, but also in economic, social, democratic terms, we need a functional global order and a strong, efficient and norm-based multilateral system," he pointed out.

In conclusion, he said that "the UN's comprehensive response to this crisis highlights the interdependence of the economic, humanitarian, security and human rights pillars."