The Geocase Chair Victor Kipiani has been invited to speak at the international conference - Challenges and Development Paths for a Cooperative Identity in the Black Sea Region – organized by the Global Studies Center at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Romania). 

The aim of the conference was to analyze the Black Sea phenomenon and identify the ways to tackle common security, geopolitical and geo-economic challenges facing the Black Sea region countries - Romania, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.

The event was held in a hybrid format and its participants included prominent analysts and experts as well as authority and diplomatic corps representatives from the abovementioned countries.

Among the distinguished speakers of the special session that opened the conference were H.E. Ms. Irina Zidaru, Director General for Strategic Affairs, MFA Romania; H.E. Mr. Ihor Prokopchuk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Romania; Mr Beka Chkheidze, Deputy Director of International Economic Relations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia; Dr. Hanna Shelest, Security Studies Program Director, Ukrainian PRISM & Editor-in-Chief of Ukraine Analytica; Mr Victor Kipiani, the Chairman of the Georgian think tank Geocase; and  Dr. Igor Munteanu, Assoc. Prof., former Exec. Director of IDIS Viitorul and former Ambassador of The Republic of Moldova in the United States. 

Ms Leonela Leca, the Senior Analyst and Mr Silviu Nate, the Director at the Global Studies Center addressed the audience with a welcome speech and moderated the discussions.

During his presentation, Victor Kipiani discussed the Black Sea security issues in the context of Russia’s new strategic geopolitical approach. He mentioned that the Black Sea is becoming a fulcrum of great power competition and the Black Sea region countries should be well equipped and well prepared to deal with and tackle the existing as well as emerging challenges. 

“Global Security model in a foreseeable world would be combined, unified and united. The future of global security will be based on hub-and-spoke models. There will be more articulated regional centres. Those regional centres will be competing with each other for more security umbrellas and more investments as well, this is another incentive for us to team up, join our efforts and do our best to win in this competition. Institutionalizing the cooperation of the Black Sea nations is something that we should be looking at,”- stated Victor Kipiani.

In this regard, The Geocase Chair voiced his idea about the Black Sea Declaration which would be signed by the Black Sea like-minded nations (except Russia). According to Kipiani, the declaration, among other issues, would focus on the area free of corrupt and special influence zones, diversifying regional infrastructure, implementing socially and environmentally sustainable projects, also, setting up a regional free trade area to develop the economic potential of the Black Sea region. In terms of security, he underlined the formation of relatively small alliances between countries and cited the AUKUS (Australia-Britain-USA alliance) model as an example.

Kipiani underlined the world should understand that the Black Sea is an integral component of Eurasian security as it simultaneously has connections to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. 

“The foundation of the Black Sea unity in terms of security is a common perception of risks, threats and challenges,”- summed up his speech Victor Kipiani.

In the end, during the Q&A session, participants learned more details about the topics discussed and gained further insight into the region's developments.