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Romania benefits from a geographical location at the confluence of different regional powers and interests. In addition, it is a country with geostrategic importance, owing to its many natural resources (e.g. oil, gas, gold). As such, any further eastern extension of the EU cannot be made without actively involving Romania as a diplomatic and strategic actor. The foreign policy challenges faced by the EU, in this region, can be partly alleviated, by posing Romania as the European "Trojan horse" in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. To paraphrase Lord Paddy Ashdown, "it is quite simple. We must increase the stability in Eastern Europe and Central Asia if we do not want to import instability and criminality in Europe".

One main challenge:

The biggest challenge faced by Romania is to be found in its internal political arena, on account of its consequences on the international level. Assuredly, internal governance, which is too sensitive towards domestic hazards, cannot transform into external influential governance. Post 1990, Romania has discovered a sui generis transition, and has moved too early towards capitalism, while having failed to modernize its political institutions.

Henceforth, one main challenge faced by Romania is the construction of a united political leadership, able to overcome political intestine conflicts. In order to allow the effective establishment of a political centrality and therefore stability, the government must assume the role of unifying the different parties in times of emergency (e.g. the current economic crisis) - to unite the different parties around a common scope: the good governance of the country. With the aim of ensuring a political unity, two solutions can be envisaged: (i) the redefinition of parties' ideologies and the implementation of less fluid partisan borders and; (ii) the edification of a long-term civil society by initiating think tanks and a larger middle-class.

Two main perspectives

Once the internal challenge is alleviated, Romania will be able to take on strategic roles. Two main governance perspectives, aligned to serve the EU's interests, can be developed, namely: (i) developing the role of Romania as a security vector and setting it down as an active partner in multilateralism and, (ii) concluding partnerships posing Romania as a geostrategic center inside the EU.

In the frame of a global climate increasingly subjected to ventures and threats, the problem of the need for increased multilateral governance is posed. Nowadays, Romania benefits from a still neutral status on the international security scene – it has not engaged in preventive wars or sanctions. Hence, she can pose herself as the ambassador of pre-emptive politics and as a vector in the establishment of a real platform of diplomatic dialogue.

In the first semester of 2010, Romania was designated for the EU's local presidency in Turkmenistan. Romania had thus the chance to set itself up as a diplomatic emissary in Central Asia. Romania should, now, actively engage itself in developing economic partnerships with geostrategic reach in this region. By establishing collaboration based on investment in the energy sector, Romania will define its role as strategic pole inside the EU, and in doing so; affirm its independence as an actor rather than as a pupil inside it.

In actual fact, two principal interests, emerging from a direct collaboration between Romania and Central Asia, can be emphasized, specifically:

(i) Coping with the energy demand of the EU's internal market and ;

(ii) Deterring China's diplomatic and financial efforts in the Caspian Sea.

Indeed, Romania would benefit from the comparative advantage carried out by its democratic regime and its European institutional background. Therefore, in the long term, sovereignty would be consolidated in Central Asia, making the region less receptive to financial advantages provided by China. Lastly, owing that many pan European orthodoxies would be opposed to an extension of the EU to Central Asia, making Romania become the ambassador of Europe there, will get rid of the need for integration per se, by substituting it with an "OPEC of the Urals".