Romanian President Traian Basescu said in a conference on Friday that his country is not interested in becoming a leader in the Black Sea region but rather willing to collaborate continuously with its Euro-Atlantic allies to maintain stability in this part of the world.

“We do not plan to be a country that has the role of a regional leader”, Basescu said at the conference “European Romania, Euro-Atlantic Romania, Romania in the sphere of international relations”, hosted in Bucharest.

He said such plans were some of the most unfounded aims of Romania’s post-1989 foreign affairs, thus hinting at a considerable change in the rhetoric of Romanian foreign politics.

He said Romania would rather be more focused on maintaining stability in the Western Balkans and Black Sea regions as the latter is “a space that must be secured especially because it’s Europe’s energy source”.

And Basescu said Romania would focus more on supporting a project to bring the neighboring Moldovan Republic closer to the group of ex-Yugoslav countries which are more advanced in their effort of EU accession. The final goal is to help the Republic join the EU at the same time with Western Balkan countries.