ForMin Aurescu proposes dialogue platform to build confidence in EU extended neighbourhood

Romania proposes the building of dialogue platforms to build confidence in the suspicion atmosphere in the extended neighbourhood of the European Union Foreign Affairs Minister Bodgdan Aurescu announced on Thursday; he pleaded for the creation of a "prosperity belt" around the EU.

Photo credit: (c) ALEX TUDOR / AGERPRES STREAM

"These 'security trust' can generate a trust environment and can expand the security and development conditions in an area that extends beyond the immediate vicinity of the Union. Reality shows we need building a true prosperity and security belt around us, not just through our neighbours, but through their neighbours, too. Because, indeed, the problems that generated the weakening of the security conditions around Europe actually come from the area of the neighbours of our neighbours," Aurescu said in a debate on Romania's contribution to the modernization of the European Neighbourhood Policy and to the EU approach to the Eastern Partnership, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He pointed out that Romania's initiative comes in the context of proliferation of "instability nuclei", which cause "suspicion often governing the atmosphere in the extended vicinity of the Union."

"Therefore, trust is the element we wanted to focus on. To this effect, we need to follow the neighbours' commitment, build a trust and security belt around the partners included in the European neighbourhood policy, within a contiguous space from the Atlantic through Northern Africa and the Middle East, the eastern neighbourhood and to the northern Europe," Aurescu explained.

He also pointed out that the platform proposed by Romania was a new cooperation model, on the basis of which further concrete projects can be launched....