The EU should persuade Russia to cooperate and involve it in mutual projects, president mulls

“Together we should erect spheres of trust, not of influence,” the chief of state pointed in his opening speech. He then labeled Russia as the biggest and most important neighbor of the European bloc and “the most demanding”, emphasizing the length of the list of divergences.

The EU should remain faithful to its multilateral vocation and strive to convince Russia to cooperate and involve it in joint projects, the president said. The past year attack on Georgia and the recent gas crisis unearthed the interdependency that ties the two blocs, he added.

The forum debuting today is an occasion to tackle security and economic issues, the Peace Partnership in the Caucasus and the problems in the Black Sea. The reunion takes place under the patronage of the Romanian president. It will bring together more than 250 officials, political leaders, businessmen and NGO representatives from more than 32 European, North-American and Asian countries.

At the beginning of the year, Romania had to do without Russian imported gas for two weeks, following a conflict with Ukraine over the shipping price. Russia's Gazprom cut off gas supplies which transit Ukraine on January 1. Then, the flow of Russian gas through Romania's Isaccea unit was halted on January 6 and that through the Mediesu Aurit unit was paused on January 7.

Romanian authorities redirected gas supplies of large industrial plants to domestic consumers. Most of the biggest industrial consumers were shut down before the gas crisis started owing to shrinking demand caused by the financial crisis.