ODESA, OCTOBER 15th, 2013, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE ¬― Member of Parliament, the Chairman of the Sub-committee on social protection of servicemen, their families, and military pensioners of the Committee on National Security and Defence Sergiy Grynevetskiy has stated that today neither Ukraine nor Romania can pretend to be leaders in the Black Sea region for their economic weakness, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.

Sergiy Grinevetsky noted yesterday, 14 October, during the international conference “Ukraine and Romania: Partners or Competitors?”.

“‘Partnership’ and ‘competition’ are not just words. There is a conscious partnership, and the partnership which is forced, constrained and aggressive. In fact, the same can be said about the competition. We could talk about the competition, if it was a real pretension to leadership in the Black Sea region. Today, however, neither Ukraine nor Romania can apply for this role because of their economic weakness,” he noted.

“The Black Sea region in whole is rather an object of the game of leading geopolitical players than a powerful centre of influence. And the reason for this is just the contradiction between the states of the region and the lack of trust between them. And the relationships between Romania and Ukraine, unfortunately, can serve as example here. We know many examples of structural interaction. Romania, as it is known, supports the European aspirations of Ukraine, which takes on particular importance in advance of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius,” Mr Grynevetskiy added.