In the second half of 2016 I had the chance of been included in the ranks of Romanian experts’ who were interviewed by Sergiy Gerasymchuk (SSSG) in Bucharest on the topic of Ukrainian – Romanian relationship. The responses were integrated in the analysis Paper titled The Relations between Ukraine and Romania: Old and New Perceptions. Cooperation Outlooks that follows the pilot initiative of launching the Ukraine – Romania International Experts’ Consortium. This platform has been used for more than 5 years to further develop a fruitful cooperation between Ukraine and Romania. The paper was jointly done by APD – Asociația Pro Democrația (Romania) and SSSG – Strategic & Security Studies Group (Ukraine), with the support of Hanns Seidel Foundation – Romania
Among the conclusions of this paper we can mention:
Last but not least, a trilateral of interests could come into shape: Romania-Ukraine-Moldova. For Romania, Moldova is the most important country in the region. It is in Romania’s best interest that Ukraine is stable, as the developments in Ukraine are liable to have a material impact on Moldova, and vice-versa. Under such circumstances, Bucharest and Kyiv are following with the interest the developments on the political scene in Chișinău where the month of November sees the electoral debates in full progress. Ukraine and Moldova are now faced with separatist regions that threaten their integrity and sovereignty.
In the end, this Analysis Paper provides the Romanian and Ukrainian parties with additional resources that can be tapped in to increase the trust between experts and the civil society representatives, as well as the stakeholders in the field of democratic development and security, and to make a contribution to development of joint regional actions that target both Ukraine and Romania.
The paper is available online here.