Romania’s far-right presidential frontrunner said on Wednesday he will bar continued Ukrainian grain exports through Romania and further military aid to Kyiv if elected, and that Bucharest is not obliged to stick to NATO’s defence spending commitments.
Speaking to Reuters in an interview ahead of a presidential run-off vote on Sunday, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu also questioned the effectiveness of European Union funding and said Romania’s interests would come first should he win.
If Georgescu defeats pro-European centrist Elena Lasconi in the run-off, Romania could become isolated on the West’s eastern flank and its key support within NATO for Ukraine against Russia’s 2022 invasion could collapse.
Since Russia attacked Ukraine, Romania has helped export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv.
All of that will stop should he win, Georgescu said.
“How could I agree to that? It is impossible. Romania and the Romanian people come first.”
“It is unimaginable that there be a war next to us in the middle of Europe, so a priority will definitely be that this war in Ukraine must immediately be stopped.”
Romania, a European Union and NATO member state, shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine and hosts a U.S. ballistic missile defence system and a permanent NATO battle group – which Georgescu said were not among his priorities.
NATO DEFENCE SPENDING PLEDGE ‘ULTRA-SECONDARY’
Asked if he backed NATO’s unfulfilled pledge that each member state spend 2% of GDP on defence annually, a stance held by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whom Georgescu admires, he said: “This is ultra-secondary, I am not even interested.”
“The concern of the Romanian people is to be happy. They cannot be happy spending money on other things. If NATO is defensive, then it should remain defensive. I believe one thing – Romania has an obligation to no one.”
Romania’s Social Democrat-led government has pledged to raise defence spending to 2.5% of economic output.
Georgescu also said he would appoint a prime minister from a parliamentary majority arising from the Dec. 1 parliamentary election. He also said Romanian companies should own a majority in any ventures with foreign investors.
“The decision-making must remain in Romania, not with foreigners. By law any Romanian entrepreneur will have 51% of any deal.”
Georgescu has criticised past privatisation of state assets, particularly in the energy sector. Asked how he viewed a Black Sea offshore gas project jointly held by Austria’s OMV Petrom and state gas producer Romgaz – counted on as one of the key alternatives to remaining Russian supplies to Europe, Georgescu said, “I prefer not to see it, but I will from Dec. 9.”
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In separate remarks on Wednesday, he also questioned the effectiveness of EU funds, which have underpinned economic growth and infrastructure development in Romania, a formerly communist country and one of the EU’s poorest members.
“Have European funds helped us? Are we reliant on European funds? This country can’t produce? Don’t we have other investors? There is money everywhere in this world, let me tell you.”
source: reuters.com/romanias-georgescu-against-ukrainian-grain-exports-via-romania
