Romania, Poland worried about threatening deployments of Russian forces near Ukraine, Black Sea

Romania and Poland are worried about the threatening deployments of Russian forces in the vicinity of Ukraine and the Black Sea, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Tuesday at a joint news conference with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau,agerpres reports.

"Romania and Poland make together a force that counts in the region and in the North Atlantic Alliance," said the head of the Romanian diplomacy. He said there were currently "worrying developments" in terms of regional security.

"Minister Rau presented to me the assessments of the Polish side of the state of play on the Polish border with Belarus amidst an ongoing wave of migrants orchestrated by the Minsk authorities against Poland, and also against Lithuania and Latvia. We are watching very carefully and with concern these developments and I have once again expressed Romania's solidarity with Poland, as I have expressed such solidarity with Lithuania and Latvia. These countries are facing, from the Lukashenko regime, a form of unacceptable and unprecedented hybrid threat in the form of instrumentalisation of migrants," he said.

Thus, said Aurescu, "a multidimensional security crisis is created."

"We, Romania and Poland, are worried about the threatening deployments of Russian forces in the vicinity of Ukraine and the Black Sea," the Romanian minister said.

Rau spoke about the situation of migrants on the border with Belarus. "We, Poland, have decided to inform our friends and partners and members of NATO and the European Union about the situation at the borders and about our assessment of the security environment," he said.

The Polish minister said he came to Bucharest "because Romania and Poland are two pillars of NATO's eastern flank." "I feel obliged to present our assessment of the situation on the eastern flank to our other NATO partners and friends," he added.

At the same time, Rau mentioned the importance of the Polish assessment in the current situation. "Our voice on the situation here should not only be heard and discussed among NATO partners, but it should dominate such discussions," he said.

According to him, "in the most cynical way, migrants are being brought from Belarus and used against their will," which threatens the cohesion of NATO and the EU.