BUCHAREST, May 17. /TASS/. Normalizing relations with Russia and some other countries is crucial for making Romania a democratic and modern country, the southeastern European nation's former Foreign Minister Andrei Marga said.

"Democracy is implemented through international cooperation, not through hostility," he pointed out in an op-ed for the Cotidianulhd media outlet.

"I would like to emphasize <...> the need to normalize relations with China, Russia, and Turkey, which is essential for Romania’s democratization, modernization and welfare," the ex-minister noted.

"The current Romanian leadership’s policy of using Russia as a bogeyman is based only on pathetic propaganda," he noted, adding: "There is still no evidence that anyone plans to attack anything in Europe."

"Portaying certain counties as bogeymen is an idea promoted by incapable rulers, who can legitimize themselves in the eyes of their own people only by supporting conflicts," Marga stressed.