Bogdan Aurescu, the Romanian Foreign Minister, spoke in a CNN interview about the natural gas crisis in the Republic of Moldova this winter, when the Russian company Gazprom interrupted the gas supply.
“The crisis was caused by Russia’s actions against Moldova, it was a very good case study for hybrid actions against a country in the eastern region,” said Bogdan Aurescu.
“The Republic of Moldova is not a NATO member state, but we recently witnessed, in October, for example, a gas crisis in the Republic of Moldova. The crisis was clearly caused by some Russian actions against this country, it was probably a very good case study of a hybrid action on a country in the Eastern Region. Both Romania and the European Union have acted decisively to support the Republic of Moldova to face such challenges,” said the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, according to g4media.ro.
Bogdan Aurescu described, in the same interview, the accusations of President Vladimir Putin as “nonsense”, who claimed that the Romanian-based anti-missile defensive shield would be a threat to Russia, according to timpul.md.
Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu also said today (February 3rd) that the current security crisis “is about the security of the Euro-Atlantic area” as a whole, noting that allied states must continue to coordinate on concrete measures so that to get a de-escalation of the situation, according to Agerpres.
“The current security crisis is not just about Ukraine’s security, it’s not just about the region’s security, it’s not just about Europe’s security, it’s about the security of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole, and the Black Sea is an integral part of that space. Black Sea security is an integral part of transatlantic security. What happens in the Black Sea does not remain in the Black Sea. The Russian Federation continues to mass troops in the vicinity of Ukraine, in the Black Sea region, these are worrying developments that require our constant attention and then we decided and today we had once again this opportunity to continue to coordinate on concrete measures that we have to take them together, in such a way as to get a de-escalation of the situation, to get a continuation of the dialogue,” said Bogdan Aurescu, in the joint conference with the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in Bucharest. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.