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The German Marshall Fund of the United States hosted Sergiu Medar, national security advisor to the Romanian president, March 7 for a roundtable discussion on challenges and opportunities in the Black Sea region.  Speaking to representatives from the government, diplomatic, and think tank communities, Mr. Medar highlighted the region’s importance to the Euroatlantic community.   At the event, Mr. Medar stressed the need to establish a secure and reliable energy corridor from eastern suppliers to Western markets.  With some 20 billion tons of untapped oil resources and abundant reserves of natural gas, the Black Sea, he said, should be an area of natural interest for the United States and the rest of Europe.   Mr. Medar also underscored the region’s potential to serve as a barricade against “asymmetrical threats” like terrorism, organized crime, and human and drug trafficking.  According to him, many of these threats either originate from conflict areas within the region — including Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Transdniestria — or pass through the area on their way westward.  To counter these challenges, Mr. Medar called on NATO and the EU to develop more robust security strategies for the region.  He also argued for greater regional cooperation on economic, political, and security affairs, and suggested that the littoral states of the Black Sea engage in more trust-building exercises such as joint rescue operations.