Securing Europe Through Regional Cooperation: FES at the Sarajevo Security Conference

Convened by the New Lines Institute and under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the conference has grown into one of the largest geopolitical and security gatherings in the Western Balkans, bringing together more than 140 speakers and over 300 participants. The conference drew a diverse audience, from NATO officials to policymakers, and from civil society representatives to defense experts, at the Vijećnica and the Army Hall of Sarajevo. The event took place with the support of, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Southeastern Europe, NATO Headquarters, the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the embassies of Finland, Spain and Italy, amongst others. 

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung supported the event with a discussion on one of its current projects, “A Shared River, A Shared Security: The Lower Danube as a Strategic Theatre for Security, Defense, and Democratic Resilience”. This contributed to one of the event's overarching goals: discussing the evolving security challenges facing Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The conversation was strategically paired with other contributions on topics such as the state of transatlantic relations, Europe’s new security architecture, strategic communication in the cyber domain, resilience in the Black Sea, and the resilience of democracies against information operations.

Cristian Chiscop, Program Coordinator for FES Romania, chaired the panel with the speakers Ruxandra Ivan from the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Bucharest and Aleksandar Dimitrov from Sofia University of National and World Economy. The panel addressed the Lower Danube basin not only as a geographical boundary, but as a strategic area where security, defense and democratic resilience intersect. Cooperation between Romania and Bulgaria was at the heart of the discussion. Cristian Chiscop, reflected on the necessity and aim of this contribution: 

„In comparable regions of strategic importance, such as the Baltic and Nordic regions, countries are moving rapidly to establish dense, hyper-agile networks of horizontal cooperation alongside their NATO and EU membership. Driven by the acute threat of the war in Ukraine and the urgent demand for hard security, Bucharest and Sofia are rapidly transitioning to a similar model. They are trying to “catch up” by building horizontal minilateral structures, but face steep infrastructure bottlenecks and political hurdles. 

If the model until now has relied rather strictly on vertical mandates from Brussels and Washington, Romania and Bulgaria are now extending political-diplomatic coordination, working together on joint security arrangements, deepening economic cooperation, and improving connectivity. 

Structured cooperation between Romania and Bulgaria in the Lower Danube could create a strategic cluster able to influence the vertical agenda. Like the NB8, this would allow two relatively small states to maximize their political leverage by binding themselves into a tighter diplomatic bloc.

Cooperation should not be viewed only through the lens of security. Economic development can reduce regional disparities, while improved infrastructure can strengthen smaller communities and peripheral regions. And cross-border economic cooperation can also build greater political trust between neighbouring countries, benefiting their people and the region as a whole.”

From this point, the discussion broadened to encompass a wider Black Sea context. The Lower Danube cannot be considered in isolation from the Black Sea security architecture. Measures to be taken in the river basin should be addressed through a regional approach, and Romania and Bulgaria should be positioned within this architecture not as individual actors, but jointly.

The third axis of the panel went beyond the inter-institutional dimension of security. Ruxandra Ivan, from the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Bucharest, emphasized that the already existing and growing convergence between the societies of the two countries is, in itself, a source of resilience. 

For FES, this participation forms part of a long-term effort to address peace and stability policies through regional cooperation. The Foundation’s office for Southeastern Europe has been operating from Sarajevo and develops joint programs with FES offices across the region. For the organization, the main rationale for this cooperation is that security debates must be addressed not only in their military dimension but also in their social and democratic dimensions.

FES Working papers from the project “A Shared River, A Shared Security” are available online, whilst the full report is scheduled for publication in October, 2026.