Discurs la al XIII-lea Summit Economic Eurasiatic

Regional Challenges. A Romanian View

by HRH Prince Radu of Romania

The Marmara Foundation’s  13th Eurasian Economic Summit, Economy Session (Eurasia and Global Relations) May 6, 2010

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a privilege indeed to address you today about important topics for our countries, such as economic growth, regional security and the complex relationship between Europe and the Caucasus, the Middle East and Asia, in general.

Membership of NATO since 2004 and the European Union since 2007 is definitely the cornerstone of Romania’s security policy. Both the Government and civil society are active in creating bridges within the transatlantic world, in terms of economy, politics, defence, culture, education and environment.

As a country with a special geographical position, which makes us a kind of natural bridge between Europe and Western Asia, Romania experienced, however, a paradox: the insufficient understanding, knowledge, and the ability to profit from so many things we have in common. Northern Africa, as well as the Middle East and the Caucasus, although situated in the immediate neighbourhood of Europe, remain parts of our region that could develop stronger, more profound and more complex relations with the countries of the European Union.

Many cultural, economic or educational opportunities are ignored or wasted. Countries in South-Eastern Europe, such as Romania, could be an efficient instrument in building confidence, cultural and religious confluence and creating economic, educational or environmental projects between Europe and Asia.

The cultural closeness of our neighbourhoods has been consolidated in hundreds of years of common traditions, folklore, customs and co-existence. As a Romanian I always felt close to the civil society, culture and temperament of countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Jordan or regions such as the Southern Caucasus, not to mention Greece, Serbia or Hungary. Tens of thousands of intellectuals in Irak, Iran, Syria, Algeria or Morocco have been educated in Romanian universities and in the Romanian language.

In a way, certain aspects of our modern history and a certain cultural and economic influence of the last two centuries have drawn our part of the world quite close to Indian, Thai or Chinese society and culture. And much of their recent economic and cultural characteristics are easier to understand from Bucharest or Istanbul, than from Paris or Madrid.

We often talk today about an imperious necessity to face and solve grave and unprecedented global issues. And often Asia, and particularly the Middle East and the Caucasus, are the subject of debates of the context. But quite rarely our historical and cultural links are used indeed to shorten distances, to smooth asperities and to build paths of knowledge, wisdom and understanding between the Asian and the Euro-Atlantic world.

The American President, Mr Obama, said some weeks ago, quoted by an English newspaper: “What’s troubling is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics – the ease with which we are distracted by the petty and trivial ». Here is certainly not the place to analyse the smallness of the world’s politics, but the magnitude of the challenges of our world is obvious.

This is why I consider international meetings like the Eurasian Summit in Istanbul to be a blessing. As a citizen of a country deeply committed in healing the wounds of the recent past and trying to play a prominent role in developing and consolidating our region, I can only urge and hope for a right, judicious and competent use of our capabilities to move our continents closer and intelligently to solve together global challenges.