On March 4th, the German Marshall Fund of the United States hosted a roundtable discussion with Ambassador Cornel Feruta, Political Director at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  With the United States and Romania having adopted a bilateral Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century in September 2011, Romania’s role and efforts on an international scale have been steadfast, especially in promoting greater cooperation among its Black Sea neighbors in myriads of areas.  In the discussion with Ambassador Feruta, the talk focused on the role of Romania in the region as well as the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the New Silk Road.  The conversation was attended by 25 individuals, including GMF staff, government and embassy officials, as well as representatives from the public, private, and academic sectors.

Ambassador Feruta began the discussion by briefly talking about the relations with the United States, stating that joint endeavors had been undertaken and that the partnership was to continue taking advantage of every opportunity, including the U.S. interest to further expand its business opportunities in Romania.  He then directed the discussion about the region and Romania’s work within the area.  Ambassador Feruta pointed to the role that Romania has had in contributing to the stability of the region.  The greatest challenge has been the degree of predictability in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.  While the degree of predictability continues to grow, Romania is investing its efforts to make sure that it is not undermined.  With regards to Afghanistan and the post-2014 commitment, Ambassador Feruta discussed the position that Romania has taken in this realm.  Romania is currently active with troops on the ground in Afghanistan, and he stressed the importance of the current government’s commitment to not abandon their priorities.  Furthermore, the work on Afghanistan is one that will have to be constructive and come from the international community as a whole.

Turning the discussion to the New Silk Road, Ambassador Feruta discussed the need for a vision to compliment the work and interest of all the actors. There are much possibilities and potential for development, and the economic and security concerns have to be factored into the final vision to make sure that it is a successful endeavor.  The New Silk Road is a long term process; however, by finding the commonalities between all actors, it will only strengthen and stabilize the region further.

In the question and answer session, the discussion delved further into the prospective look for this new Silk Road as well as what cannot be achieved just quite yet due to the direction of the current discussions.  The program concluded with Ambassador Feruta acknowledging that the New Silk Road is a less ambitious, more realistic project that seeks to be a synergy between the different integration strategies currently in the region and that the benefits will be tremendous to all actors.