Black Sea Conflicts Are Growing Threat, Romania Says (Feb 8, 2006)

Romania's ForMin, Mihai Razvan UNGUREANU (L) - (archive photo)

(Initially published in www.romania-report.ro -- Feb 8, 2006)

Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu warned yesterday (while in Berlin) that frozen conflicts and instability in the Black Sea region are a growing threat to the European Union.

Ungureanu said such conflicts are "a source of insecurity and asymmetric risks." Frozen conflicts in the region include the dispute between Romania's eastern neighbor, Moldova, and its breakaway Transdniester region.

Other conflicts are the uneasy truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and Georgia's unresolved disputes with the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In remarks made in Berlin before talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Ungureanu said Romania would call a summit this summer aimed at addressing security issues in the Black Sea region.

Source: RFE/RL