D.S.M. Conference | Iulian Fota: In political parties’ program, national security is not even mentioned

“From a conceptual perspective, we must place interests and values at the same level. In the Western world, there are no differences between interests and values. The most important thing we do not want to understand is that security in the West is both a value and a national interest. Today, due to the lack of professionalism, national security is extremely ostracized. I have analyzed, for the past few weeks, political parties’ programs. They are not even mentioning the national security topic, you barely see foreign policy mentioned, however treated superficially. The security and security policy ideas are both completely ignored. Now, when the national security shortcoming is increasing, the world is facing a more and more dangerous situation. The threats against Romania are more and more obvious comparing to the past, they are stronger and intensified by the domestic vulnerabilities that we all witnessing. The vulnerabilities list starts with the bad governing. Our domestic reaction is more and more fragile”, stated Fota, on Thursday, within the Conference on “The national security policy, from strategic thinking to security and defence institutions”.

He also stated that discussions on national security should firstly take place inside Romania, and not just being presented, alike in the past, to foreign allies only.

“We are vainly continuing to organize debates which are oriented towards the foreign world, we are hunting the allies, the personalities abroad, we keep on trying to explain them that Romania can be a security guarantor, something that was extremely well done starting with 1997, when Romania started to argue its case, for the NATO and EU accession. I think that if we keep on doing so, we are doing it wrong. The main debates that we should organize are the ones to include only us”, stated Fota.

Also, Iulian Fota thinks that Romania is facing an ideological confusion. “Organizing discussions with the allies is a flawed process, because now, in the inside, we are facing a large ideological and strategic confusion. Romania is more and more helpless, and we can all see that, it has a security shortcoming which is increasing only because we are in a dangerous moment. The most important discussion we must have it should only include us, the Romanians. Romania is helpless; is not that we are incapable, but because we a living an ideological confusion which creates also a strategic numbness, a moment wherein Romania is facing older territorial scenarios that, until a few year ago, we thought they were gone in terms of the risks and threats against national security”, stated Fota.

“Our interests are eternal. Historically speaking, we, the Romanians, had three major national interests during time, the first one was keeping our territorial integrity; our modernization as country and the unification are still standing”, also stated the former presidential counsellor.

The Defence and Security Monitor organized, on Thursday, at the Marriott Hotel in Bucharest, the Conference on “The national security policy, from strategic thinking to the security and defence institutions”, a debate forum with important guests from Romania and abroad. Among the topics approached at the event, there were the “the fundamental national interests and the threats against the national security”, “Romania’s capacity to provide national security” and the “national security concept of Romania” in an international context.

Starting from the idea that “national security is nation’s most important value”, the participants at the conference, among them also dr. Thomas-Durell Young, the Israeli General (r) Itai Brun, the Polish General (r) Jaroslaw Strozyk, will analyze the significances of the national security concept within the transformations of the international system, especially in the Euro-Atlantic space.

Conference’s objectives are related to understanding the importance of national defence and security by Romania’s citizens, from understanding the role of the institutions to the transparency of using state funds, to involving citizens in the strategic decisions and identifying nation’s objectives and solutions of the future National Defence Strategy.