Some remarks on geopolitics in Romania

When speaking about the geopolitics of Romania we should understand that there are two small, and at the same time two big, problems. There is no coherent vision between all the institutions and the people. The people want to ask for some ideas that are not shared by government. And there were a lot of protests in the last two years regarding internal politics, but inside the internal politics there is also some external direction. We are not strong enough to resist and to act just as we wanted. There is a large disproportion between Romania and Western economic and military forces.

However, we are the biggest country in the Balkans. Romania traditionally was a country that promoted a special kind of culture, which accepts and develops the intellectual potential of other countries. You know very well that independent Albania was created in Romania in 1913, the independence of Bulgaria was created by an intellectual school living in Bucharest, and Romania participated in the liberation of Bulgaria alongside the Russian troops in the war of 1877-1878, where Serbia also benefitted from Romanian influence. We played this role because we are a synthesis culture; we are Latin with significant Slavic, Hungarian, and Turkish influence, and we managed to use this synthesis to create prominent intellectuals that can be read today.

With regards to the regional interests of Romania, we have special interests in the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in the eastern flank. Ukraine is of special interest, its Romanian minority faces big problems, and we are very concerned with these problems today. Another important issue is migration; flows are close to our borders and we are not happy with this phenomenon, because it may affect us at any time and could become much more dangerous. Another issue is the EU’s influence and economic crisis, or economic difficulties within it. We are affected because 70% of our export is going to the European Union - 70% of our export is going to one direction. It is not good, because any crisis there may affect us. And at the same time there is the special idea for Romania to develop much more coherent and pragmatic relations with Russia, because we want to benefit from the big advantages of the Russian market, but also because our people are very friendly.  There are many marriages between Romanians and Russians, which are very stable. This means that people find common ground very easily and have a lot of common positions.

There is misunderstanding between the importance of eastern politics, the eastern regions of Romania, and the orientation of the educational system.  We have a lot of people speaking fluent English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and very few speaking Russian, Turkish etc. It is not possible to create real geopolitics in your country if you look just in one way. And unfortunately in the past few decades Romanians were most interested in the western part, which is not normal. Even our constitution says we should develop friendly relations with all other countries. Let’s correct our politics. We are not New Zealand, surrounded only by water. We have five neighbors and it means that you are also part of their geopolitics and must take it into account. If, for example you’re a part of Bulgarian geopolitics, you are included in a context that also includes Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea etc. We have forgotten this and are now feeling the lack of institutions in this region. For example, in Romania in recent years only one article on the geopolitics of Bulgaria and Serbia was written, and I wrote it. It is not enough.