Ponta: EU needs to draw the line with Russia

The 28 EU member states must come together to send Russia a clear message after the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said in an interview with Bloomberg yesterday.

For Romania, the events in Crimea across the Black Sea make the crisis “more intense” than for countries in other parts of the continent, Ponta said.

“Russia has been for centuries — in different names, Russia, Soviet Union, it doesn’t matter — but it has been a great power and a great power must have a clear answer from Europe that this is the red line,” Ponta said in Bucharest yesterday. “Nobody wants confrontation, but there must be a red line which can’t be crossed.”

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Ponta mentioned that Romania is taking measures to insure national security, such as boosting defense spending and working with the Pentagon to develop missile defense. The EU also needs to present a unified energy policy to counterbalance Russia’s position as an oil and gas exporter, he said.

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“We have important military facilities and we have increased our military expenses,” Ponta said. “The idea is that prosperity, economic development and the rule of law cannot be” guaranteed “when there is always a danger very close.”

Ponta didn’t say whether Romania would welcome the deployment of NATO troops in addition to the more than 1,000 soldiers serving at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base on the country’s Black Sea coast.