Experts from the New Strategy Center had meetings on Thursday and Friday, 16 and 17 November, in the US Congress with experts from the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and the House of Representatives Military Affairs Committee. Discussions focused on the importance of having a US strategy dedicated to the Black Sea region, possible security developments in the region, the implications of Russia’s disruptive actions against freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, and global effects, including from a food security perspective, the development of energy projects in Romania’s Exclusive Economic Zone and the strategic impact on the region, bearing in mind that with the start of gas exploitation in the Neptun Deep perimeter in the Black Sea Romania will become the largest gas producer in the EU, Russia’s subversive hybrid activities in the Republic of Moldova.

Similar topics were also discussed by New Strategy Center experts at meetings that took place at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and Heritage Foundation with American experts on security, energy and foreign affairs. The debates were substantive and very dynamic, as such an exchange of views is important in the context of the war in Ukraine and all the more so as the US enters 2024 in an election year that will influence attitudes on a number of issues of interest to Romania’s security.

NSC experts made a visit to the US in Washington on 13-17 November for a series of meetings and events aimed at presenting the strategic importance of the Black Sea region in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the need for the US Congress to adopt the Black Sea Security Act, a bill aimed at developing a long-term US Black Sea strategy in multiple areas. The study “The Battle for the Black Sea! The Importance of Freedom of Navigation and Energy Stakes“, produced together with the American think-tank Yorktown Institute.
The New Strategy Center is grateful to the Romanian Embassy in the US for its support, as well as to Rear Admiral Liviu Coman, representative of the Naval Forces Staff, for his involvement and presence at some of the meetings of the programme, as the American discussion partners appreciated the complementary nature of the points of view expressed and the expertise of the Romanian participants.