Historically, the Black Sea has been a major stake in the competition of great powers and an area of conflicting strategic interests. The relevance of the Black Sea can be exemplified in at least three ways: it provides the connection between Europe, the Middle East and Asia; it ensures the transit of hydrocarbons to Europe; and it facilitates the projection of power to adjacent areas. The fact that the Black Sea basin is a melting pot of significant military crises and tensions, amidst the expanding network of frozen conflicts, has increased the urgency of discussing and developing specific policies for managing the complex strategic realities in the area. After the end of the Cold War, the Russian Federation’s ambitions to retain control and influence over the Black Sea have weakened any attempt to stabilise the region. The expansions of NATO and the EU into the area, along with sustained efforts to address Russian concerns, have not changed Moscow’s security agenda or its assertive behaviour. With the annexation of Crimea and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Black Sea has become a key battleground used by the Kremlin to radically alter the power equation in the region, exerting permanent pressure and generating threats on NATO member states, implicitly on Romanian territory. Taking into account all these developments and the importance of the Black Sea, the article aims to address the issue of maritime security. First of all, we will explain why the Black Sea remains of critical importance for European security in this new reality in which we witnessed the excessive militarisation of the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Federation after 2014 and the outbreak of a conflict against Ukraine. Secondly, we analyse the evolution of Romania’s particular approach in the maritime sector, in this complicated context of the Black Sea.

Keywords – maritime security, Black Sea, European security, Romania.