Romanian Foreign Minister Bohdan Aurescu welcomed the resolution passed by the European Parliament on Thursday calling for the creation of a special international tribunal to consider the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine, and said that “it is necessary to find the strongest legal basis for the creation of such a court.”

In an interview given to Al-Jazeera at the Davos Forum, Minister Aurescu said that Romania “has been a very strong supporter of the fight against impunity against Russia and Russian criminals in connection with the conflict in Ukraine,” according to Agerpres.

Aurescu reminded that in March last year, Romania applied “together with many other states to the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” “We have also submitted our Statement of Intervention to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the case between Ukraine and Russia, and I can proudly say that I will be Romania’s agent in this case,” added the head of Romanian diplomacy. “We also intervened in the case between Ukraine and Russia at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,” he noted.

“And yes, we also support the creation of a court to punish the crime of aggression,” Aurescu said. However, he explained that “the most difficult part is the legal basis for the creation of this tribunal, because most of the precedents that have allowed the creation of other international tribunals, other special criminal tribunals or other types of bodies related to UN Security. Councils, where Russia now, of course, has veto power against any such form of struggle against its impunity.

Therefore, he added, “we need to find the strongest legal basis for creating such a court.” “At the time in Romania, we were thinking about the precedent of the Kosovo Specialized Chambers, which were created through an agreement between the European Union and the Kosovo authorities,” Aurescu said.

“Although Romania does not recognize Kosovo as a state, from a legal point of view it could be an interesting formula: for example, an agreement between the European Union and Ukraine to install these cameras that can be connected to some national cameras of Ukraine. . At the same time, let’s have a kind of “international prosecutor’s office”, which consists of international experts in the field. Perhaps this is too advanced a proposal, but we need a legal discussion on this issue,” he said.

In the same interview for Al-Jazeera, Bohdan Aurescu recalled that Romania, “the EU and NATO member state with the largest border with Ukraine,” was “at the forefront of efforts to combat the consequences of the war in Ukraine from the very beginning.” day”.

“I would say that this war radically and forever changed our lives. We had to adapt immediately,” said the head of Romanian diplomacy, recalling the diplomatic efforts, the reception of more than 3.3 million Ukrainian refugees, the aid given to international efforts to avoid the food crisis. “Since the beginning of the war, more than 11.2 million tons of grain and other agricultural products from Ukraine have transited through Romania, almost half of the total volume transited through the EU solidarity corridors,” he emphasized.

The Romanian minister also referred to the fact that “many opportunities arise from this conflict.” “The EU candidate status was a great achievement for both Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova”, “also very important decisions taken at the NATO summit in Madrid, which significantly strengthened security on the eastern flank”, “a group of militants from Romania (… ) and the fact that the Alliance’s presence in Romania has increased to almost 5,000 soldiers,” which means “a major contribution to the consolidation of the security of Romania and the eastern flank,” he listed.

“Therefore, there are many opportunities. Perhaps we should thank President (Russian Volodymyr) Putin for all this, including the fact that he allowed us to be less dependent on Russian energy sources,” the Romanian Foreign Minister also said in an interview.

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