Analysis of the Role of Natural Gas Transactions in the Economic Relations between Romania and the Republic of Moldova

Owing to its increasingly crucial position in the elaboration of economic strategies and political agendas, the energy driver contributes to significant paradigm shifts and determines changes in the geopolitical and geoeconomic landscape, thus earning a central position among the concerns of all stakeholders at the societal, economic, and political level. With its potential role as a game changer that can drastically alter the balance of power between parties and serve as either leverage or liability that can ensure success or failure, energy remains an important geopolitical parameter because, even before the advent of the expected post-pandemic relaxation, it has fuelled major global developments on all levels, such as conflicts, macroeconomic imbalances, corporate business plans, as well as the day-to-day lives of individuals. As soon as the restrictive measures implemented to counteract the global health crisis were eased, energy resources were identified as engines of economic recovery by state actors whose economies had been deeply affected by the pandemic. At the level of society, amid the start of economic recovery programs and virtually uncontrollable developments in energy prices, there has been an unprecedented deepening of welfare gaps, reigniting an issue with various social ramifications, namely energy poverty. Romania has quickly adapted to the current geopolitical context, pursuing the longer-standing goal of developing trade and diplomatic relations in its vicinity, in particular close cooperation with the Republic of Moldova, where it seeks to expand its influence. The present paper examines the process by which, with the aid of natural gas resources, our country attempts to bring to the forefront the good cooperation it maintains with the neighbouring country, as well as the potential opportunities and mutual benefits that can emerge from this collaboration.