Bulgarian-Romanian relations reveal their potential when there is trust between the participants

Monica Varbanova

The Bridge of Friendship: In connection with its larger theme of Romanian infrastructure construction and Bulgarian-Romanian infrastructure connection projects, the Bulgarian newspaper Capital contacted the founder of the Bulgarian-Romanian blog The Bridge of Friendship to seek his opinion on some current issues in bilateral relations. Vladimir Mitev commented on what characterises Romanian foreign policy and the dynamics of Bulgarian-Romanian relations in recent years. He pointed to some persistent problems in bilateral relations – the lack of trust and poor communication, the results of which are visible periodically. The journalist also pointed out some possible solutions related to more mutual understanding and increasing the potential in the relations between Bulgarians and Romanians. According to him, these relations should have dynamism coming from both peoples and capable of making a change. He fears that the lack of such dynamics leads to a situation where change in relations between the two countries only happens thanks to pressure from their international partners.

The interview was quoted in part in the Capital newspaper article “Why we can’t cross the Danube“ by Monika Varbanova of 11 October 2024. It is published in full by the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” with the consent of the media.

Monica Varbanova: What has characterised Romania’s foreign policy in recent years?

Vladimir Mitev: Romanian foreign policy, at least in my reading, has traditionally tried to fit into some larger visions and approaches to our region, becoming an important part of them. Examples of this are Romania’s activity in the B9 format (bringing together the countries of NATO’s eastern flank since 2015), the Three Seas Initiative initiative for regional cooperation in the eastern part of the EU (Bucharest hosted its summit in 2018 and 2023) and the Moldova platform (in which Romania, together with France and Germany, financially supports the Republic of Moldova).

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis’s visit to Kiev in the summer of 2022, together with the leaders of Germany, France and Italy, was also significant. He thus played the role of a politician from the European East who supports the Western European approach to the warring countries.

At the time, Poland and the UK were the hawks on Russia, while Western European countries, until recently basing their economies on Russian raw materials and investment in Russia, were criticised for their more moderate positions in support of Ukraine. Subsequently, in the autumn of 2023. Romania and Ukraine entered into a strategic partnership, with many of the stumbling blocks in bilateral relations overcome – for example, when it comes to the Ukrainian authorities’ treatment of the Romanian language and the Romanian minority. In this way, Romania has not only shown that it is a NATO outpost in the region, but has also defended its national interests on issues for which it was previously criticised by the sovereignists. In the end, in the European elections of 9 June 2024, the two sovereigntist parties together took just under 20%, while in 2023 expectations were that the whole sovereigntist bloc could reach 28-30%.

Many things can be said about Romanian foreign policy and they would probably surprise uninitiated people. For example, Romanian security elites are very well connected to Western elites insofar as Romania is a NATO outpost in the region. But that does not prevent Romanian-Hungarian relations from being quite good, and there is a strong sovereignist tendency in Romanian politics. In addition, Romania has attracted significant Western European investment, which allows many of its citizens, especially young people, to have access to European money. All of these things have their influence on Romania’s national and foreign policy.

How have Bulgarian-Romanian relations evolved in recent years?

The coming to power of the Petkov cabinet at the end of 2021 has created a new dynamic in Bulgarian-Romanian relations. It has intensified especially in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the challenges it has posed to the countries in our region. Many of the issues in bilateral relations on which there was no movement before began to be thawed. The development of infrastructure projects has again come to the fore. Defense and security cooperation has also intensified.

In March 2023, the presidents of the two countries – Rumen Radev and Klaus Iohannis signed in Sofia a declaration on strategic cooperation between the two countries. It outlined the common desire for better political, economic and cultural relations between the two countries. It stated their desire for a new bridge at Ruse-Giurgiu. And stressed that the two countries are entering a new phase of their relations in which they can more closely coordinate their positions and actions at European and international level.

At the moment, it seems that bilateral relations are mostly developing in security and defense cooperation. The Romanian Cultural Institute supports cultural events involving Romanian and Moldovan citizens. There are also classical music concerts with Bulgarian performers in Romania.

But large parts of the two nations are not used to doing things together. And there is a visible deficit of trust – both between the elites and between the peoples, who do not know each other and are usually not particularly interested in each other. There is a need for more people and organisations in the bilateral and regional relations of the two countries to act as bridges of friendship – that is, to have the confidence of the different “riverbanks”, but also to create trust between them by their activities. Without more trust and without an increase in the potential of the relationship (i.e. more mutual knowledge between people and networking), bilateral relations will continue to develop not with the two societies’ own momentum, but only with the dynamics that come from their partners (which explains the existing interaction in the defense and security spheres, where partners guarantee there will be no surprises, but also the absence at this stage of significant achievements outside them). I hope that we do not end up in a situation where the interest of our partners in cooperating wanes and we return to low-intensity political, inter-institutional or interpersonal relations.

Do Bulgaria and Romania manage to talk to each other, or do we often get lost in translation?

In the summer of 2024, the problems at the level of communication regarding the Danube bridge renovation and the disinfection fee showed that there was poor communication and a lack of trust. They were accompanied by the appearance of fake news in the Romanian media. However, even if the news was not true, it reflected in a truthful way the existence of mistrust and stereotypes regarding the Bulgarian authorities – something that we also have in Bulgaria in our attitude towards them. In addition, the Bulgarian state’s policy of setting up truck parks at borders where there are different prices for Bulgarian and foreign drivers, as well as the collection of a disinfection fee at the border with Turkey, are obviously causing a reaction not only in Romania, but also in other countries whose drivers pass through Bulgarian territory.

I have also had the impression that Bulgaria has, until recently, communicated nothing about itself to counter fake news or media campaigns against itself. For example, for years, perhaps even decades, there was an opinion in Romania that Romanian cars were being stolen in Bulgaria on purpose. I know people who avoided coming to Bulgaria to visit the seaside, or came with trepidation because stories of stolen Romanian cars had reached them. As far as I know, in all the time up to today, only one Bulgarian media outlet has written in Romanian on this issue, requesting information from institutions in both countries about the theft of Romanian cars in our country.

It seems to me that there are significant sections of the population in this country, too, who do not trust people and things connected with or coming from Romania. In my opinion, this phenomenon of mistrust and the difficulty of interacting with the necessary degree of conscious mutual interest, depth and durability in the relationship shows the need for neutral spaces between the two countries, where the hegemony and national egoism of one or the other country does not dominate, but conditions for normal dialogue and the creation of links arise.

Why can we not complete key projects – the ferry link at Ruse-Giurgiu, the new bridges are delayed, the deepening of the Danube is also problematic?

For the bridges, I think there are certain procedural requirements that prolong the process of their construction in time – and this probably explains why the new bridge at Giurgiu and Ruse has been talked about since at least the summer of 2022, that there is political will for its implementation, but only this autumn a public tender was announced for the company that will do its feasibility study. There is probably also a political context – for example, the fact that a lasting majority and government cannot be formed in Sofia and that ministers change frequently.

I am not familiar with the cuisine of projects such as the new bridge or the ferry between Giurgiu and Ruse. I only observe that when there is trust between Bulgarians and Romanians, many things become possible. And they can even be realised quickly. But one of the problems on both sides is that they enter into these relations with baggage in every sense – suspicion, pride, an attitude of being outwitted or that they will be lied to, etc. These things can be felt when people interact for longer periods of time and the presence of these phenomena in relationships sets limits to what is possible in them. True bridges occur where both parties are able to unlearn the baggage they have accumulated from living in their society and nation and learn something new from the experience with the other party. In other words, not only for the bridges, but in general, we succeed so little with the Romanians and they succeed so little with us because we are a people with a culture and a mindset like the peoples of the periphery. If we want to have more conversions with any of our neighbours, we have to be able to become and be new people, able to transform both our social environment and ourselves.

Photo: Piața Romană in Bucharest (source: Pixabay, CC0)

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