President Putin sees "good cooperation potential" with Romania regarding Black Sea region

"We rely on the development of mutually beneficial relations with Romania," president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said while welcoming the ambassadors of several countries, including Romania's new ambassador Cristian Istrate, Hotnews.ro reported.

Russia is ready to work together on intensifying political, economic and humanitarian links, Putin said. "There is good cooperation potential with respect to the Black Sea region," he added, touching upon a delicate topic at a time when Romanian president Klaus Iohannis was warning about rising tensions.

At the end of April, the National Defense Council (CSAT) convened on the situation in the Black Sea area and the accumulation of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.

"We know the situation on the ground well. We are extremely worried, but I want to assure the Romanians that we are on the top of the situation," president Iohannis stated at the time, according to G4media.ro.

More recently, on May 10, after a virtual summit of the Bucharest Nine (B9) format, Iohannis and Poland's President Andrzej Duda declared that there was a need for "stronger allied military presence," including the US participation, in the southern part of the Eastern Flank, amid the worrying security situation in the Black Sea.

The ties between Romania and Russia, typically cold, further deteriorated after Romanian authorities declared Alexey Grishaev, the deputy of the military attaché of Russia's Embassy to Romania, persona non grata. The decision was taken "given that his activities and actions breach the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations," the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) said.

On May 11, Russia expelled a Romanian diplomat in response to the "unjustified decision" of the Romanian side.

(Photo: Igor Dolgov | Dreamstime.com)