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Tag: Attack

Russian drones crash in Romania

The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest is firmly condemning the latest irresponsible attack of the Russian troops, after two drones with explosive payloads have violated Romania’s airspace and crushed on its territory close to the border with Ukraine.

Moscow’s charge D’affairs in Bucharest has been immediately summoned to the Foreign Ministry and has been briefed on the vehement condemnation of the repeated violation of Romania’s airspace by unmanned flying devices operated by the Russian military forces, which represent a blatant violation of the international law by a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

At the same time, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has underlined that these illegal and irresponsible attacks must stop, and that Romania has the right to take the response measures implied. These actions are an inseparable part of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, which has been carried on for almost three years and which has been causing security risks in the entire Black Sea region and the Eastern Flank of the North Atlantic Alliance, the aforementioned Ministry says.

Four jet fighters took off from the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airbase on Wednesday night after several targets had been detected in Ukraine’s airspace close to Romania and a potential impact zone on the national territory close to the city of Galati, in eastern Romania, had been announced.

In Romania a team of experts of the Romanian Defence and Interior Ministries on Thursday carried out a series of investigations close to the Romanian-Ukrainian border, where debris from the drone’s impact had been discovered.

The investigation revealed that both drones had explosive payloads, which were destroyed in the impact. The two sites are outside the inhabited areas and no infrastructure elements have been affected, Defence Ministry sources have announced.

Authorities in the neighbouring ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking, Republic of Moldova have also announced that two Russian drones violated the country’s airspace and exploded on the ground on Wednesday night, during a massive Russian attack against the port of Reni, in Ukraine. The two drones fell outside the inhabited areas. The two sites have been isolated and there is no threat to citizens presently, the country’s president, Maia Sandu, wrote on Facebook. In her post, she underlined that Russian drones and bombs are falling and exploding on Moldovan soil as the country lacks the necessary defence capabilities.

The North Atlantic Alliance is close to the Republic of Moldova against the Kremlin’s destabilizing actions and terrorist acts, NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, said at the end of the Thursday’s meeting of the NATO defence ministers in Brussels. According to him, Moscow’s actions in the Republic of Moldova are quote a ‘campaign of destabilization and, at times, state-sponsored terrorism aimed at your country’.

The aforementioned meeting came shortly after the US president Donald Trump announced he had commenced talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on putting an end to the war in Ukraine.

(bill)

14 February 2025
November 20, 2024 UPDATE

Schengen – The Romanian Interior Minister, Cătălin Predoiu on Wednesday talked, during a video conference, with his Hungarian counterpart, Sandor Pinter, on the subject of Romania’s accession to the Schengen area with land borders. The Romanian official stated that a good opportunity was created for the meeting that will take place in Budapest on November 22, in which the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, will also participate. With this discussion, I concluded a set of three successive meetings with the Austrian minister, Gerhard Karner, the Bulgarian minister, Atanas Ilkov, and the Hungarian minister, Sandor Pinter, in which I intended to harmonize the positions, so that the Budapest meeting should result in a new step forward for Romania’s accession to Schengen with land borders, Catalin Predoiu added.

Commissions – The Romanian Parliament approved, with a large majority of votes, the setting up of two commissions of inquiry to investigate the expenses made by the Presidential Administration in the last 10 years and to ‘investigate the real estate mafia’. The first commission was initiated by the social-democratic groups in the governing coalition with the liberals. The members of the commission want to find out, among other things, the sums paid by the Presidential Administration for the rental of planes, for the internal and external travel of the president of the country or the expenses incurred for the development of the golf courses pertaining to protocol villas. The other commission of inquiry, initiated by the National Liberal Party starting from the Nordis case, aims to identify the ways in which homes in the project stage were sold to two or more people and to identify the mechanisms through which homes promised to bona fide buyers are later resold through fictitious companies. The mandate of the current parliament will end at the end of this year, so the two commissions only have time to investigate until the winter holidays.

Ukraine – The Romanian Embassy in Kyiv has taken additional measures to ensure the protection of its staff. The Romanian Foreign Ministry says that the activity was limited to emergency actions, in coordination with the diplomatic missions of the other allied and EU member states, considering the security developments in Ukraine. The situation is constantly monitored and, in consultation with the Ukrainian authorities, the measures will be adapted according to developments. Ukraine used, on Tuesday, for the first time, American ballistic missiles against a target on the territory of Russia, as a result of the permission received from the Biden administration, which is at the end of its mandate. A thousand days after the beginning of the Russian invasion, the European Parliament promises Ukraine that the EU will stand by it as long as necessary. The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, stated that, without European aid, Ukraine would have fallen under Russian occupation.

Football – The Romanian national football team won the match with Kosovo 3-0 after the latter abandoned the match, the European Football Union announced on Wednesday. The Kosovo players abandoned Friday’s game in Bucharest, from the League of Nations, with only a few tens of seconds before the end, at the score 0-0. They motivated their decision by the fact that some spectators chanted “Serbia, Serbia”. Kosovo has declared its independence, but it is not recognized by Serbia or Romania. The team from Kosovo left the field for the same reasons in the match between the two teams in September 2023, in the EURO 2024 preliminaries, but later the Kosovo players returned to the pitch after about an hour and the match could end (2-0 for Romania). Following UEFA’s decision on Wednesday, Romania finished C2 with 18 points and promoted to League B. Kosovo ranked second with 12 points, Cyprus finished third with 6 points and Lithuania is on last position, without any point.

Training center – Two F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft of the Royal Dutch Forces, the last to equip the European F-16 Training Center, landed on Wednesday at the 86^th Air Base in Feteşti (south-east), the Romanian Defense Ministry (MApN) announced. According to MApN, the aircraft join the 16 planes already in Romania to strengthen the training capacity of the Center, which currently has a total of 18 aircraft of this type. By establishing the European F-16 Training Center, Romania has committed to providing a high-quality training environment, with access to state-of-the-art technical resources and know-how, not only for Romanian pilots, but also for those from allied and partner states, including Ukraine. The F-16 Center contributes to the creation of common operational standards and to strengthening the capacity of the North Atlantic Alliance to face the complex challenges in the Black Sea region and in Eastern Europe. (LS)

20 November 2024
One year since the October 7 attacks

Israel commemorates the victims of last year’s unprecedented attack by the Islamist organization Hamas.

Israel marks one year since the October 7 attack by Hamas, the bloodiest in the country’s history and which triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. On that day commandos of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, penetrated to southern Israel, using explosives and bulldozers to pass the barrier that surrounds the Palestinian territory, randomly killing people in kibbutzim, in military bases and at the site of a music festival, on a Jewish religious holiday. The surprise attacks were not directed against an army, as in conventional warfare. Hamas militants took their anger out on civilians.

On that fateful day, hundreds of innocent people died, massacred in their own homes, on the street, or in their cars. The terrorists shot everything that moved around them. Almost 1,200 Israelis were killed in a single day. The brutality shown by Hamas was unprecedented. It was just the beginning of the disaster. Thousands of rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip in a short period of time, and the famous “Iron Dome” anti-aircraft shield could not cope with the pace of the strikes. Cities such as Ashkelon, Ashdod or Tel Aviv strongly felt the impact of the shells. As a result, the Israeli military launched a forceful intervention to eliminate the danger.

Although it managed to stop the Hamas incursion, the army failed to rescue on time 251 civilians taken hostage. Subsequently, the Israeli army launched a strong offensive against the Palestinian territory, with the objective of destroying Hamas, in power since 2007, an organization designated as a terrorist group by the United States and the EU.

The paralysis, on October 7, 2023, for more than eight hours, of the Israeli military’s ability to respond to aggression is still inexplicable. The operation had been secretly prepared for two years and the Israeli intelligence services said they were not aware of the existence of such a plan. In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate the Hamas organization. Since the beginning of the war until today, hundreds of Israeli soldiers have lost their lives.

Israel’s objective to destroy Hamas has had an enormous impact on civilians and infrastructure in the Palestinian enclave, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. This ongoing war has killed more than 41,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas, and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

The expansion of the Israeli colonies to the Palestinian territories, the isolation of the Arab population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by erecting separation walls, the strong social exclusion of the Palestinians in the Israeli society, the ethnic segregation in the government institutions and the lack of equal opportunities fuelled the inter-ethnic conflict.

The magnitude of the October 7 attack has been fuelling division and hatred around the world: virulent demonstrations, extreme polarization and an explosion of anti-Semitic acts, to the point where European and American officials recently evoked at the UN “a tsunami of anti-Semitism” in the last year.

7 October 2024
August 26, 2024

Survey – The candidates of the Social Democratic Party – PSD and the National Liberal party – PNL, Marcel Ciolacu and Nicolae Ciucă, would enter the second round of the presidential election in Romania, if elections were held next Sunday – shows a CURS survey published on Sunday. Regarding the parliamentary elections, the PSD leads in the preferences of the electorate, followed by its governing partner, the PNL. The survey, about which we talk in detail after the news, was conducted between August 6-22, on a sample of 1,067 respondents, with a margin of error of plus/minus 3%.

Drought – The Romanian government will discuss, this week, the first set of measures for the farmers affected by the drought. Recently, the agriculture minister Florin Barbu and the farmers’ representatives have had a discussion aimed at granting compensations for the damage caused by the drought and for a new package of measures to combat the effects of the drought, a package that the minister is going to present to the members of the government. The authorities are also considering the creation of a mechanism agreed with the Financial Supervisory Authority for state insurance of an area of about 7 million hectares with an insurance premium of 3,000 lei (600 Euros) for each hectare. The establishment of local irrigation systems and forest curtains is also under discussion.

Weather – Almost all of Romania is under heat wave and severe thermal discomfort alerts, with maximum temperatures rising to 38 degrees Celsius. In the northwest, center-west, partially in the east and south, there is a code yellow alert for heatwave and high thermal discomfort. The temperature-humidity index will exceed the critical threshold of 80 units. The highs of the day will range from 34 to 36 degrees Celsius. In the coming days, the heat wave will subside and the atmospheric instability will increase. A Code Orange alert for hot weather is still in force today in 20 counties from the south, west, east and the city of Bucharest.

Tennis – Three tennis players from Romania are performing today in the inaugural round at the US Open, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Coming from the qualifications, Gabriela Ruse will face Julia Grabher from Austria. The other two Romanian players on the singles table are Jaqueline Cristian, who will play against the Russian Daria Kasatkina, seed no. 12, and Ana Bogdan, who will meet the Dutch Arantxa Rus in the first round.

Visa – The US administration is to announce, on October 15, a decision regarding the visa waiver for Romanians, which would apply starting from 2025, Romanian government sources stated. During this period, the Romanian executive is carrying out the “We qualify Romania” campaign, which aims at including the country in the American Visa Waiver program and at exempting it from obtaining travel visas to the US. As part of the campaign, launched on July 18, Bucharest undertook to meet the technical criteria for joining the Visa Waiver by September 30, 2024, the date on which the American fiscal year ends. Among them is a refusal rate below 3% of US B1 and B2 visas for business and tourism granted to Romanian citizens during the fiscal year 2024. In this sense, the government, through the Foreign Ministry, urges as many Romanian citizens as possible to renew their US visa by September 30.

Attack – The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is today going to Solingen, to the scene of the knife attack for which a Syrian, suspected of links with the Islamic State (IS) organization, was arrested, AFP reports. IS claimed responsibility for the attack and pointed out that the attacker acted to avenge Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere. According to the French news agency, Friday evening’s attack, which left three dead and eight injured during local festivities, increases the pressure on the head of government a week before elections in two states of the former communist Democratic Republic of Germany, where the far-right party AfD is well placed to get an unprecedented score. The party accused the successive governments of causing ‘chaos’ by accepting too many immigrants and called for an expulsion offensive. The suspect arrived in the country in December 2022, according to several German media, and was the subject of an expulsion order to Bulgaria, the European Union state where his entry had been registered and where he should have applied for asylum, in accordance with the community rules. In recent years, Germany has been the scene of several jihadist attacks. The one committed with a truck, in December 2016, at a Christmas market in Berlin, killed 12. (LS)

26 August 2024
June 8, 2024

Elections – Today is a day of reflection in Romania, before the European Parliament and local elections that take place on Sunday. The polling stations will open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 10:00 p.m., compared to 9:00 p.m. in the previous elections. The presidents of the polling stations can decide to extend the vote until 23:59, if there are people who did not have the time to exercise this right, but are inside or in the immediate vicinity of the station. Approximately 19 million Romanians are called to the polls in the nearly 19,000 polling stations in the country. Abroad there will be 915 polling stations, twice as many as compared to the EP elections five years ago, most of them being opened in Italy (150), Spain (147) and Great Britain (104). In the elections for the European Parliament, there are 15 candidates for one seat, and Romania will send 33 representatives to the EP. According to the data presented by the Permanent Electoral Authority, there are 20% fewer competitors in the local elections compared to four years ago. For both elections, over 102 million ballots were printed, and the Romanian authorities claim that they have taken all the necessary measures regarding the smooth running of the electoral process. For the first time, the data on voter turnout will be presented in real time, online, on election day, for each separate election, on the website of the Permanent Electoral Authority. We remind you that this year the presidential election is scheduled in September and the legislative elections in December.

EP elections – The elections for the 720 members of the European Parliament are already taking place in several states of the EU. In the Netherlands, the vote took place on Thursday, and exit polls showed an increase in the popularity of the extreme right, which would have obtained seven seats in the future European Parliament, compared to only one in the current legislature. In Ireland, the electoral process took place on Friday, as well as in the Czech Republic, where voting will continue today. Italian citizens will also vote for two days. Also today, voters in Latvia, Malta and Slovakia will go to the polls to nominate their future MEPs, while the rest of the EU countries will hold European Parliament elections on Sunday. Over 370 million voters are expected to go to the polls throughout the European Union.

GDP – The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the euro zone and the European Union registered an advance of 0.3% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data published by Eurostat. According to statistics, Romania’s economy recorded an evolution slightly above the European average, with a GDP growth of 0.4% in the first three months of the year, after a contraction of 0.6% in the last three months of 2023. The Eurostat data are similar to those previously announced by the National Institute of Statistics, which revised downwards Romania’s economic growth in the first three months of this year, to 0.4%, from 0.5% as previously estimated.

Salaries – Almost 1.9 million employees in Romania will receive their salary increased by 284 lei (approx. 57 Euros), net value, from July 1, after the Romanian Government approved the increase of the gross minimum wage from 3,300 lei (approx. 660 Euros) to 3,700 lei (approx. 740 Euros) and raised from 200 lei (approx. 40 Euros) to 300 lei (approx. 60 Euros) the monthly amount exempt from the payment of the income tax. The executive believes that this approach will have positive effects on economic growth, the purchasing power of employees and will contribute to the reduction of undeclared work. However, the decision does not apply to employees in agriculture and the food industry, as legal provisions in force apply to these categories. The government representatives said that this increase is a step towards the adoption, as of November, of the minimum wage at the European level.

Attack – The Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu conveyed a message following the attack on his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, which took place on Friday in a Copenhagen square. “I am shocked by the news of the attack on the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Violence has no place in our societies”, Marcel Ciolacu wrote on the X platform today. Mette Frederiksen was attacked by a man on Friday, but no signs of injury are reported. The police announced that a man was arrested and the incident is being investigated, but did not provide further details. The incident took place two days before the Danes went to the polls in the European Parliament elections. Three weeks ago, the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously injured in an assassination attempt.

Fraud – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is conducting investigations in Romania and Spain, in a case involving a fraud in public procurement of 10 million Euros. EPPO specifies in a statement that it is about European funds for the modernization of the water infrastructure and the improvement of energy efficiency. Several searches have been carried out so far in Hunedoara county (west), at a hospital and another public institution, thee beneficiaries of the funds, as well as in the Spanish region of Andalusia. The European prosecutors show that a group of companies from Romania, which also included a company from Spain, presented false documents and statements in order to receive the contracts for the execution of the works. (LS)

8 June 2024
April 19, 2024 UPDATE

Visit – Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, will pay an official visit to the Republic of Korea from April 22-24, at the invitation of his counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol. The Republic of Korea is the first country in the Asia-Pacific region with which, in 2008, Romania raised relations to the level of Strategic Partnership. On the occasion of the upcoming visit by President Iohannis to Seoul, this Partnership will be consolidated through a document that will establish the directions of cooperation in the next 10 years. Relevant documents will be signed regarding defense, nuclear energy, investments and foreign trade, cooperation in emergency situations and disaster management, cooperation in the fields of culture, mass media, youth and sports. In the Republic of Korea, Romania’s President will also have meetings with representatives of the Romanian community and the business environment and will visit an exhibition of traditional Romanian art.

Brussels – Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, participated, on Wednesday and Thursday, in Brussels, in the extraordinary meeting of the European Council. The talks focused, among other things, on the conflict in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, the EU-Turkey relations and the new European pact for the single market competitiveness. According to a Romanian presidency communiqué, Klaus Iohannis reiterated that Ukraine, along with the Republic of Moldova, remain issues of absolute priority and insisted on the need for a security approach that includes the entire Black Sea region. He also pleaded for the rapid advancement of the process of EU accession of the two states, within a predictable and sustained process. Regarding the situation in the Middle East, the European leaders reiterated their solidarity with the Israeli people and called for the de-escalation of the situation in the region.

Abu Dhabi – The Romanian Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, said in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, that the Romanian government wants to continue the partnerships it already has with companies from the Emirates. In this way, the Port of Constanţa is consolidating its strategic and logistic capacity in the run up to the recovery and reconstruction process of Ukraine, said the Romanian PM. Moreover, the Romanian Transport Minister, Sorin Grindeanu, announced that on May 15 the new terminal in the Port of Constanţa will be inaugurated, a joint project developed by the port company from Dubai and the Administration of the Port of Constanța, worth 82 million Euros. He pointed out that Romania was interested in attracting new financing to increase the port capacity in reducing ship unloading/loading times and smoothing the flow of ships in the port’s basins. The statements come in the context of the discussions that the Romanian delegation had on Friday with the management of the Dubai Ports company, at the end of the visit to the Middle East.

Attack – Friday’s attack near the city of Isfahan in Iran, apparently carried out by drones and attributed to Israel, worries the international community, which asks both countries to stop the confrontation. In turn, Iran minimized the impact of the explosions, did not directly accuse Israel and promised not to respond militarily. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that the Iranian nuclear facilities in the Isfahan region suffered no damage and reiterated the call for restraint. “We must do everything possible for all parties to stop the escalation of the conflict in this region,” said, in turn, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. And the G7 group announced that it would carry out a diplomatic effort to ease tensions between Israel and Iran. Tehran launched a missile and drone attack against Israel last Saturday in retaliation for the bombing – attributed to Israel – of the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, which killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic Republic’s ideological army. Israel threatened with reprisals for this attack.

Handball – The Romanian national handball team was assigned to Group B, along with the teams of Montenegro, the Czech Republic and Serbia, at the European Women’s Handball Championship – EHF EURO 2024, following to the drawing of lots held on Thursday evening, in Vienna. Romania, which won the first group of the preliminaries with the maximum score, was part of the second most valuable urn, while Montenegro was top seed. The 16^th edition of the EHF EURO for women will take place between November 28 and December 15, in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland, with the participation of 24 teams, eight more than in the previous editions. Romania participated 14 times in the European Women’s Championship, obtaining only one medal, bronze, in 2010.

Planes – Three F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft purchased by Romania from Norway landed, on Friday, at the 71^st Air Base ‘General Emanoil Ionescu’ from Câmpia Turzii (central Romania), and are to be assigned to the 48^th Fighter Squadron. According to a defense ministry communiqué, the purchase of the new planes and the related package of goods and services will ensure the increase of Romania’s security by ensuring the defense of the national and NATO airspace, in peacetime and in crisis situations. “Through the gradual arrival, throughout this year and the next, of the 32 multi-role F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, which will provide two more squadrons of the Air Force, Romania is strengthening its air defense capabilities at a level adapted to security challenges from the region”, Minister Angel Tîlvăr said.

Ukraine – NATO member states agreed on Friday to provide Kyiv with additional air defense systems, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after a special meeting of allied defense ministers. ‘In addition to the Patriot, there are other weapons that allies can provide, including the French SAMP/T system, and many others that do not have systems available have pledged financial support to acquire them for Ukraine’ Jens Stoltenberg also said in Brussels. Also on Friday, the foreign ministers of the G7 states pledged to “strengthen the air defense means of Ukraine” against Russian attacks. In the final statement issued at the end of the three-day meeting on the Italian island of Capri, they say they are examining ‘all possible options’ to use frozen Russian assets to help Kyiv ahead of the G7 summit of heads of state and government, scheduled to take place in mid-June also in Italy. On Saturday, in Washington, the House of Representatives will vote on the 61 billion dollar package proposed by the Biden administration for Ukraine. (LS)

19 April 2024
April 15, 2024

Attack – “Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,” António Guterres told the body’s Security Council as it met to discuss Saturday’s Iranian attack. “The Middle East is on the brink,” he warned. “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate” insisted Antonio Guterres. The Iranian attack, called “Operation Honest Promise”, was a response to the strike that destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, an attack in which seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, lost their lives. Iran has put the blame on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied. Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, Israel has been the avowed enemy of the Islamic Republic. So far, Tehran has not attacked Israel head-on, and the two countries have usually clashed through third parties, such as the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

Visit – The Romanian Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, is paying an official visit to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week. The main topics of discussion concern the fields of energy, port infrastructure, agriculture and IT. Investment opportunities in Romania, in the field of renewable energy, both offshore and on-shore, will also be addressed. The parties also intend to develop the public-private partnership to support large-scale projects, both in the highway and railway infrastructure. One such project, said Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, is Moldavia’s Highway. Topics of regional and international interest will also be discussed.

Energy – The Romanian Energy Ministry is organizing, on Monday, in collaboration with several entities, an event dedicated to the first cyber security exercise organized in Romania. According to the institution, the purpose of the exercise is to establish the level of preparation of the energy companies in order to face potential cyber attacks. Based on the exercise, a risk assessment will be made, and according to the results, procurement plans for goods and services in cyber security will be established, said the quoted source.

Strike – The Romanian employees of the National Trade Register Office, on Thursday, will go on a Japanese-style strike, at the national level, according to a press release sent to AGERPRES news agency on Monday. They request the Government to take urgent steps to increase salaries by 15%, given that the Office is the public institution with the lowest salary level in the judiciary field. At the same time, the trade unionists demand the granting of increased benefits for risk and neuropsychological overload, a right that is granted to all other categories of employees from the ‘Justice’ occupational family. The trade unionists announced, for the period April 23-25, rallies at the national level in all counties, and on April 26 a rally at the headquarters of the Justice Ministry. In August, the collective labor conflict will be started, the trade unionists also announced.

Price – In Romania, the average price of one liter of gasoline increased, compared to last month, by 3.2%, while one liter of diesel oil increased by one percent. With an average price of one liter of gasoline of 1.47 Euros and of diesel oil of 1.51 Euros, Romania ranks 3^rd in the European Union, in the top of the countries with the cheapest fuel, after Bulgaria and Malta. The price of oil could increase, today, after Iran’s attack on Israel, according to some analysts, quoted by the Reuters news agency. Everything depends on how Israel and the West choose to fight back.

Art – The Romanian Culture Minister, Raluca Turcan, is starting today a five-day visit to Italy, in the context of Romania’s participation in the 60^th edition of the Venice Art Biennale. Raluca Turcan will participate in the opening of the exhibition “What Work Is” by Şerban Savu, presented at the Romanian Pavilion at this year’s edition of the Biennale, as well as at the New Gallery of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice. According to a Ministry of Culture press release, Romania’s participation in the Venice Biennale is a constantly renewed declaration of membership to European and world culture. The Culture Ministry traditionally supports the Romanian presence at the Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious cultural events in the world. (LS)

15 April 2024
April 13, 2024 UPDATE

Salary – In Romania, the average net salary rose to 4,876 lei (about 980 Euros) in February, up 17 lei compared to the previous month, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics. The lowest values are still in the field of clothing manufacturing, and the highest in information technology. As to the evolution of consumer prices, the average wage was actually slightly lower than in January, but, compared to February 2023, it increased by 14%. The minimum wage in Romania will increase, from July 1, from 3,300 lei to 3,700 lei (740 Euros).

Aid – The European Commission sent the member states the proposal to extend the measures regarding state aid, in the context of the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine. Until June 30, the EU countries can grant a series of facilities to limit the negative effects of the conflict in such domains as agriculture and energy. The Commission made this decision following the difficulties faced by European farmers in particular and as a result of their consultation through the online survey completed on March 27. According to the survey, the markets of the member states are still unbalanced by the effects of the war, and also by the measures taken by the EU to support the Ukrainian export of agricultural products. According to the commission’s proposal, member states can grant state aid of up to 280,000 Euros to agricultural companies, up to 335,000 Euros to those in the field of fishing and aquaculture and up to 2.25 million Euros to those in the rest of the affected sectors. A second type of aid is aimed at compensating energy costs, and primarily targets the large industrial consumers.

Tennis – The Argentinean tennis player Francisco Cerundolo, world number 22, will be the top seed of the Ţiriac Open (ATP 250) tournament, which will take place at the Năstase / Marica Sports Base in Bucharest, between April 15-21. Cerundolo will enter directly into the round of 16, when he will face the winner of the match between the French Richard Gasquet and the Argentinean Federico Coria, according to Saturday’s drawing of lots. The main singles draw will feature, among others, the Swiss “veteran” Stan Wawrinka, whose opponent in the first round will be the Portuguese Nuno Borges, and the Canadian Denis Shapovalov who will face the French Corentin Moutet. The Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, the second seed, and the American Sebastian Korda, seed no. 3, will enter directly into the round of 16. The winner of the Bucharest tournament will get 250 ATP points. The total prizes offered are worth 580,000 Euros.

Congress – Representatives from almost 70 countries are debating within the World Congress of Ukrainians, which is taking place at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest, ways to encourage the strengthening of Ukrainian culture, identity, traditions and language in communities around the world. Nicolae Miroslav Petreţchi, a deputy from the Ukrainian minority in the Romanian Parliament, said that the choice of the venue is not accidental. He says that Romania is a reliable partner for Ukraine, the bilateral relations being very close and at a strategic level. The Ukrainian diaspora is one of the largest in the world, with over 26 million members, plus about 6 million refugees following the Russian invasion of 2022.

Kyiv – The situation on the Eastern Front has deteriorated considerably in the last few days, the Ukrainian Chief of Staff, Oleksandr Sîrski, said on Saturday. He said that this was mainly due to a significant intensification of the Russian offensive after the presidential election in Moscow. Kyiv has been asking its Western allies for months for more ammunition and anti-aircraft defense systems. However, the aid is running out due to political blockages in Washington, which forces the Ukrainian military to save ammunition, the press agencies write. On Saturday, Germany announced that it would supply Kyiv with an additional Patriot air defense system to defend against increased attacks. “Russian terror against Ukrainian cities and the country’s infrastructure is causing immeasurable suffering,” said the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

Canberra – Six people were killed in a mass stabbing in a Sydney mall on Saturday afternoon, while others are in hospital, including a child, police and emergency services said, as quoted by news agencies. The police, who shot dead the attacker, say that he acted alone. Also, the police claim that nothing at the scene of the attack indicates the motivation of the knife attack, but they state that they do not exclude a terrorist track. The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the police officer who shot the criminal, saying that, through her courage, she has saved lives. (LS)

13 April 2024
March 25, 2024

MOSCOW The four suspects of the Friday’s attack, which killed 137 and wounded over 180 at a concert venue in Moscow were brought to court on Sunday. All had wounded faces and, according to Reuters, one of them, which was being carried in a wheelchair apparently had an eye missing. The authorities have presented them as foreign citizens without revealing their nationality, but according to the Russian press, they are from Tajikistan. The attack has been claimed by the Asian branch of ISIS, which even released images during the massacre. The Russian investigators didn’t mention the Jihadi connection, whereas president Putin and the Russian Security Service FSB have mentioned the suspects’ intention to flee to Ukraine, where they had contacts. Kyiv has rejected the theory as absurd. The Romanian Foreign Ministry in Bucharest has conveyed condolences to the victims’ families underlining that Romania is firmly condemning any form of terrorism and violence against civilians.

ALERT The government of France has raised the terror alert warning to its highest level after the Friday’s massacre in Moscow. The country’s Premier, Gabriel Attal, said in a post on a social network that “the decision was taken in light of the Islamic State’s claiming responsibility for the attack and the threats weighing on our country.” France is one of the countries, which has seen some of the bloodiest terror attacks masterminded by Islamist fighters, such as the ones in 2015-2016, which left roughly 300 dead and hundreds of wounded. The government in Paris has explained that the aforementioned Islamist organization has been recently involved in a series of attempted attacks, which have been thwarted by the police forces in several European countries, such as France and Germany and the head of the executive this morning summoned the representatives of the services responsible for the country’s security and safety of citizens.

VOTE MPs in Bucharest are today debating upon a simple motion against Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu, who has been accused of having endorsed a law for the financial benefit of some politicians. Under the title ‘Praising Ceausescu cannot save the Romanian Agriculture’ the simple motion has been initiated by the opposition USR following the minister’s appreciative discourse about the country’s former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The USR representatives have been accusing the minister of having treated the protesting farmers with contempt and of having ignored the MPs requests to present his activity. The vote is going to be cast on Tuesday.

HANDBALL The Romanian women’s handball side Dunarea Braila has qualified for the final tournament of the EHF European League after a 26-25 home win against the Croatian side Podravka Vegeta on Sunday in the second round of the quarter finals. Dunarea, which also won the first game against Podravka, is Romania’s second representative in the EHF Finals Women, due on June 1 and 2 in Graz, Austria, after Gloria Bistrita. Romania’s champions CSM Bucharest have qualified for the quarter finals of the Champions League in women’s handball after a double win against Slovenian side Krim Mercator Ljubljana and will be playing in the quarters against the French side Metz Handball.

(bill)

25 March 2024
March 24, 2024

MOURNING Russia observes a national day of mourning on Sunday in the wake of the terror attack in a Moscow concert hall that left at least 143 people dead and many wounded and which was claimed by a Jihadi group known as the Islamic State. The Russian public television has broadcast film footage from the interrogation of four of the masterminds, foreign nationals apprehended in a region situated at the border with Ukraine and Belarus. President Putin says the terrorists’ intention was to flee to the neighboring Ukraine where their escape was prepared. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Putin of trying to blame the attack on Kyiv. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has conveyed condolences to the victims’ families underlying that Romania firmly condemns any form of terrorism and violence against civilians.

DEATH The President of the Writers Union in Romania, professor, literary critic and historian, Nicolae Manolescu, died at the age of 84 due to a heart attack. Many of his colleagues and disciples believe him to be Romania’s most important historian and literary critic since WWII. Nicolae Manolescu also had political activity after the anti-communist revolution of December 1989, being Romania’s ambassador at UNESCO and served as senator during the 1992-1996 legislature. He ran for Romania’s presidential seat in 2000. During his life and career, Nicolae Manolescu became recipient of some of the highest Romanian awards.

FOOTBALL Romania’s national football selection is training for the friendly against Columbia in Madrid on Tuesday. Our footballers ended in a one-all draw their friendly match against Northern Ireland in Bucharest on Friday. These are the first two training matches of our squad before EURO 2024 in Germany this summer. In June, Romania will be playing also in friendlies against the selections of Bulgaria and Lichtenstein. At the final continental tournament, our squad is part of Group E where it will be playing Belgium, Slovakia and the winner of the tie game on Tuesday pitching Ukraine against Iceland. On Thursday night in the tie semis, Iceland secured a 4-1 win against Israel and Ukraine clinched a 2-1 win in Bosnia.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player, Sorana Cirstea, has qualified for the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament underway in Miami, Florida, after a two-set win against Sloane Stephens of the host country. Cirstea clinched a 6-2, 6-1 win in a match that lasted 52 minutes and which was initially postponed because of the heavy rainfall. The Romanian will next take on Daria Kasatkina of Russia. Three other Romanians, Simona Halep, Ana Bogdan and Jaqueline Cristian have been eliminated in the competition’s first round. We recall that Halep, a former world number one, came back to competitions after her four year suspension for banned substances had been cut to nine months.

(bill)

24 March 2024
March 23, 2024 UPDATE

CONDOLENCES Romania’s Foreign Ministry has conveyed condolences to the victims of the recent terror attack that left hundreds of dead and wounded in Moscow. In a post on the X network formerly known as Twitter, the diplomacy in Bucharest has underlined that Romania firmly condemns any form of terrorism or attacks against civilians. The Kremlin announced on Saturday the arrest of 11 people, including four perpetrators of the attack on a packed concert venue on Moscow’s outskirts, claimed by a Jihadist group known as the Islamic State. Gunmen donning camouflage suits opened fire with automatic rifles against the people attending a concert on Friday. According to AFP and Reuters, the death toll stands at 150 and is expected to rise. Health Ministry sources have announced that 115 people have been admitted to hospitals, including five children. Parliament sources have announced on Telegram, that two suspects have been apprehended in the region of Briansk after a car chase. Other suspects have taken refuge in a forest nearby.

BORDER According to the Border Police General Inspectorate over 190 thousand people, Romanian and foreign citizens, as well as 57 thousand vehicles crossed Romania’s borders on 22^nd of March. 96,119 people entered Romania yesterday, including 8,489 Ukrainian nationals. Since 10 February 2022, two weeks before the Russian invasion, 7,600,853 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania. According to the same sources, procedures at Romania’s border checkpoints are done under the national and community legislation.

FOOTBALL Romania’s national football side ended in a one-all draw their friendly against Northern Ireland in Bucharest on Friday. Romania will next play Columbia on neutral ground in Madrid on Tuesday. These are the first two training matches of our squad before EURO 2024 in Germany in summer. In June, Romania will be playing also in friendlies against the selections of Bulgaria and Lichtenstein. At the final continental tournament, our side is part of Group E where it will be playing Belgium, Slovakia and the winner of the tie game on Tuesday pitching Ukraine against Iceland. On Thursday night in the tie semis, Iceland secured a 4-1 win against Israel and Ukraine clinched a 2-1 win in Bosnia.

SCHENGEN Romania’s entry into the border-free area of Schengen is a feasible objective by the end of the year, Romanian Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu has said. According to him, the Romanian side has already completed the preparations for the country’s accession with its air and maritime borders approved by the EU Council and scheduled for the end of this year. Predoiu explains that Romania and Austria are cooperating very well in the field of border security, combating the illegal migration and cross-border crime and says that he has proposed his Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, to extend this collaboration beyond the Schengen issue with emphasis on fighting drugs and human trafficking. On March 31^st, the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens will be able to travel to Schengen countries without border controls in ports and airports. According to statistics, 70% of the Romanians who travel by plane abroad have as their destination countries within Europe’s border-free area.

SHORTAGE Romania is presently witnessing a shortage of trained physicians and nurses, according to data released by the Healthcare Ministry. Over 86 hundred jobs are available in this field while the small towns and villages are bearing the brunt of the present crisis. Over 300 communes across the country lack family physicians while over half of towns and villages have reported a shortage in medical personnel. In the county of Salaj, in north-western Romania, the issue has been partially solved by hiring retired doctors and setting up secondary working units. In order to attract the young doctors, who aren’t interested nowadays in getting a job in rural areas in Romania, the communes affected by the shortage have invested in upgrading their clinics, as well as the other facilities that may benefit the medical personnel such as dwelling places or transport networks.

(bill)

23 March 2024
March 23, 2024

ARRESTS The Kremlin announced on Saturday the arrest of 11 people, including four perpetrators of the recent attack at a concert hall on Moscow’s outskirts, claimed by a Jihadist group known as the Islamic State. Assailants dressed up in camouflage suits opened fire with automatic weapons against the people attending the concert. According to AFP and Reuters, the death toll stands at 150 and is expected to rise. Health Ministry sources have announced that 115 people have been admitted to hospitals, including five children. Parliament sources have announced on Telegram, that two suspects have been detained in the region of Briansk after a car chase. Other suspects have taken refuge in a forest nearby.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea is today taking on US challenger Sloane Stephens in the second round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami, Florida with more than 8 million dollars in prize money. The game was postponed in the first set due to the rain at 5-2 to Cirstea. The other three Romanians in the competition, Simona Halep, Ana Bogdan and Jaqueline Cristian have been eliminated in the first round. We recall that Halep, a former number one, has returned to competitions after a suspension of a year and a half for alleged doping.

BORDER According to the Border Police General Inspectorate over 190 thousand people, Romanian and foreign citizens, as well as 57 thousand vehicles crossed Romania’s borders on 22^nd of March. 96,119 people entered Romania yesterday, including 8,489 Ukrainian nationals. Since 10 February 2022, two weeks before the Russian invasion, 7,600,853 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania. According to the same sources, procedures at Romania’s border checkpoints are done under the national and community legislation.

FOOTBALL Romania’s national football side ended in a one-all draw their friendly against Northern Ireland in Bucharest on Friday. Romania will next play Columbia on neutral ground in Madrid on Tuesday. These are the first two training matches of our squad before EURO 2024 in Germany in summer. In June, Romania will be playing also in friendlies against the selections of Bulgaria and Lichtenstein. At the final continental tournament, our side is part of Group E where it will be playing Belgium, Slovakia and the winner of the tie game on Tuesday pitching Ukraine against Iceland. On Thursday night in the tie semis, Iceland secured a 4-1 win against Israel and Ukraine clinched a 2-1 win in Bosnia.

WEATHER The weather is nice and warm in almost all Romanian regions with highs ranging between 11 and 21 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 18 degrees.

(bill)

23 March 2024
February 13, 2024 UPDATE

VISIT The PM
of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, will be on an official visit to Rome on February
14-15, and will take part in the 3rd joint government meeting of Romania and
Italy, held 13 years after the previous inter-governmental summit. PM Ciolacu
will have meetings with the PM of Italy, Georgia Meloni, and will attend a
meeting of the 2 official delegations and the signing of bilateral documents. His
agenda also includes talks with the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, and a
meeting with the Romanian community in Italy. Italy is one of Romania’s most
important economic partners, and the Economic Forum focusing on areas such as IT&C,
energy, the processing industry, infrastructure and the agri-food industry is
another excellent opportunity to improve our economic cooperation, PM Marcel
Ciolacu said. Marcel Ciolacu will also be received by His Holiness Pope Francis
at the Vatican.

INTERESTS The
National Bank of Romania Tuesday decided to keep the monetary policy interest
rate at 7% per year, the institution announced. The central bank will also keep
the credit facility interest rate at 8% per year and the deposit facility
interest rate at 6% per year, and also maintain the current levels of the
compulsory minimum reserve rates for banks’ national and foreign currency
liabilities. The key interest rate has not been changed since last January, when
the National Bank decided to raise it from 6.75% to 7% per year. A balanced mix
of macroeconomic policies and structural reforms, including the use of EU
funding to encourage the country’s growth potential in the long run, are vital
to maintaining macroeconomic stability and to strengthening the Romanian
economy’s capacity to withstand negative developments, the institution said. An
updated forecast by the central bank reconfirms the prospects of an increase of
the annual inflation rate in the first months of this year, following the
increase of existing indirect taxes and the introduction of new ones, and of a
subsequent downward trend, at a slower pace than in 2023 and than originally
expected.

CYBERSECURITY On Tuesday 4 more hospitals in
Bucharest and elsewhere in the country were added to the list of 21 public and
private healthcare units affected since last weekend by a large-scale cyber
security incident, the National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC) announced. A crypto
currency ransom demand has been received, amounting to approx. EUR 157,000, but
the attackers only provided an email address, without disclosing the name of
the group claiming the attack. Both the DNSC and other cyber security
authorities involved urge the victims not to contact the perpetrators and not
to pay the ransom. The healthcare minister, Alexandru Rafila, has told Radio
Romania that some of the hospitals have managed to fix the problems, and the
authorities will come up with a new technical standard designed to prevent such
actions. Other public institutions in Romania have been targeted by cyber-attacks
in the past.

FARMERS On
Tuesday the European Commission officially endorsed a regulation which grants a
partial exemption for farmers from the rule binding them to keep 4% of their
arable land fallow. In exchange, they are required to grow nitrogen fixing
crops such as lentils or peas. The measure comes after large-scale farmer
protests across the EU, including in Romania. Member States who wish to apply
the derogation at national level need to notify the Commission within 15 days
of entry into force of the Regulation so that farmers can be informed as soon
as possible.

WRD World Radio Day was celebrated on Tuesday, and this year’s theme
was A century of information, entertainment and education. To mark this
celebration, Radio Romania’s stations broadcast interviews with journalists,
media experts, teachers, public figures and listeners, and their programmes
featured debates on the future of radio and broadcasts from the European
Broadcasting Union. The UNESCO declaration on World Radio Day, entitled Radio,
the Trusted Guide in a Changing World, can be found on the websites of all
Radio Romania’s stations.

WRESTLING The
Romanian athlete Denis Florin Mihai won the bronze in the Greco-Roman style 55
kilo category of the European Wrestling Championship in Bucharest on Tuesday, after
defeating Georgia’s Nugzari Tsurtsumia. Mihai ranks 4th in the world
standings and was the bronze winner in last year’s European Championships. Romania
takes part in the event in Bucharest with 30 athletes, 10 in each style.

POLO Romania’s men’s water polo team will play for the 9th
place at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, after defeating China 9-7 on Tuesday. In
the match for the 9th and 10th places, scheduled on
February 15, Romania takes on the USA. Romania finished 8th last
month in the European Championships held in Croatia, and the team’s best performance
to date at a World Championship is a 5th place in 1975. (AMP)

13 February 2024
January 29, 2024

PARLIAMENT This week sees the start of this
year’s first parliamentary session in Romania, marked by a special election
context in which Romanian citizens are expected to take part in 4 types of
elections-for the European Parliament, for the national parliament, as well as
presidential and local elections. The Senate’s agenda includes, among others,
emergency orders concerning the farmers and carriers who have been protesting
across the country. The Chamber of Deputies has a number of bills pending
endorsement, including legislation concerning drug trafficking and gambling. This
weekend the justice minister Alina Gorghiu said 3 bills have been submitted to
Parliament, which are aimed at curbing drug trafficking. They concern the
set-up of a national drug trafficking register and of regional rehab centres, while
the so-called 2 Mai Bill eliminates suspended sentences for drug trafficking
and increases penalties to up to 10 years in prison. Other bills pending
approval introduce 10-year driving bans for DUI, and healthcare and
psychological assistance for people found in possession of illegal drugs.

ECONOMY An International
Monetary Fund mission headed by Jan Kees Martijn arrives
in Bucharest today to review the latest economic and financial developments.
This is a regular consultation based on Romania’s relation with the IMF, and it
comes 4 months after the previous visit. The IMF expects a budget deficit of 6%
of GDP and an economic growth rate of 2.3% this year. IMF experts also
recommend a number of additional reforms, and in the previous assessment visit
they mentioned the scrapping of the remaining exemptions, privileges and
loopholes, a more efficient VAT implementation, a reformed property tax system,
and the use of fiscal policies in order to promote efficient energy and the
clean energy transition. Romania has no ongoing agreements with the IMF at
present.

BRANCUSI Some 100 works were included in the largest
exhibition in 50 years in Romania devoted to the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.
Opened in late September in western Romania as part the Timişoara – European
Capital of Culture, the exhibition came to an end on Sunday night. Sculptures,
photographs, arhive documents and footage were on display in Timişoara’s National
Art Museum. To mark the end of the exhibition, the National Bank of Romania
launched a commemorative silver coin honouring the sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi.

PROTESTS The French farmers’ protests have
reached a new stage today, with major roadways into Paris and other large
cities to be blocked indefinitely as of today. The main trade union in the sector threatened
large-scale operations, including a complete obstruction of food supply flows
to the capital city’s supermarkets, so that the locals may feel the effects of
the protests. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Paris, the plan
includes the use of tractors to shut down motorways and slow down traffic. Similar
steps are also planned for France’s second-largest city, Lyon. Farmers protest the
inadequate payments for their produce, the red tape and the competition coming
from cheap imports. In a move to address the situation, PM Gabriel Attal admitted
that a first set of measures, announced on Friday, was insufficient and
promised new decisions to increase farmer revenues would be made this week.

MIDDLE EAST Iran denies involvement in
Sunday’s drone attack on a US military base in north-eastern Jordan, near the
Syrian and Iraqi borders, in which 3 US troops were killed. The Islamic
resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, and the US president
Joe Biden said these are groups known to be supported by Iran. Biden warned
that the US would respond to the attack. These are the first US troops killed
in the Middle East since the start of the war in Gaza, prompting fears of an
extended conflict in the region. Meanwhile, Paris hosted a meeting of officials
from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel, aimed at brokering a new ceasefire in Gaza
and the release of the hostages taken by Hamas. Negotiations will continue this
week. Violence continues in Gaza, and locals say Israeli air raids and shelling
have increased in recent days in the region’s north and centre. According to
the Israeli Army, its troops are involved in heavy fighting in the south, in Khan
Younis, where they have taken out a number of terrorists. The humanitarian
crisis is worsening, and UN calls on nations to resume their donations. (AMP)

29 January 2024
November 30, 2023

DEFENCE Romania’s new Army Chief of Staff is the general lieutenant
Gheorghiţă Vlad. At the swearing in ceremony on Thursday, president Klaus
Iohannis said Vlad was entrusted with the responsibility of carrying on the
Army’s process of adapting to new challenges and of maintaining a high level of
battle training for the troops. We need more determined measures to re-launch
the national defence industry, the president also said, including though
industrial cooperation, so that a larger share of the ammunition and equipment
we need to be produced domestically. This and the high level of military
training, will ensure a strong and credible defence capacity, adapted to the
new security challenges, the head of state added.

RECYCLING In
Romania, the deposit and return scheme for beverage containers became
operational on Thursday. Romania will run the second-largest programme of this
kind in Europe, after the one in Germany, in terms of the number of containes
processed. Romanians who pay a 10-Eurocent deposit on purchasing bottled
beverages from retailers will be able to return the container to drop-off
centres organised by retailers, and will be refunded their deposits without
having to produce the receipt for the original purchase. Deposit-carrying
containers will be introduced gradually, with a transition period until current
stocks in shops are sold out.

DIPLOMACY The
Romanian foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu took part on Wednesday in an
informal dinner ahead of the OSCE ministerial council in Skopje, organised by
the rotating chairmanship holder, North Macedonia. Talks focused on Russia’s
war of aggression against Ukraine and the need for an efficient OSCE in times
of conflict. In her address, the Romanian diplomat emphasised the difficult
circumstances in which the Organisation operates, in the context of Russia’s
unjustified and unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine. She also
reiterated Romania’s solidarity with the Ukrainian people, emphasising the
multi-dimensional support given to Ukraine. Luminiţa Odobescu also highlighted
the negative impact on the Republic of Moldova, the social and economic
difficulties facing Moldova as a result of Russia’s various pressures, as well
as the relevance of Moldova in the security dynamics of the region.

KISSINGER The
former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who played a major role in shaping
the US foreign policy under presidents Nixon and Ford, died on Wednesday aged
100, the BBC announced. Kissinger was a national security adviser and a state
secretary between 1969 and 1977, during which the US ended its involvement in
the Vietnam War, opened its relations with China and saw the end of hostilities
in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur War in the Middle East. He won the Nobel
Peace Prize, although his opponents claiming his role in bombing Cambodia and Laos
amounted to war crime. He pioneered the concept of Realpolitik, which values
pragmatism in international relations, the BBC also said.

HOLIDAY Christians
celebrate today Andrew the Apostle, the patron saint of Romania. Historical records
indicate that Saint Andrew preached in Scythia, in the north and west of the
Black Sea, including present-day Dobrudja, where he ordained priests and
bishops who took the word of Christ to the Dacian population between the Danube
and the Carpatians. As such, he is recognised as the patron saint of Romania. He
was martyred by crucifixion in the city of Patras, in Greece.

ISRAEL An attack
by 2 Palestinians in western Jerusalem at rush hour killed 3 people and wounded
7 others, 4 of whom are in a serious condition. The attack took place as the
truce between Israel and Hamas was renewed for the 7th consecutive
day, in order to carry on the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian
prisoners. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent, the attackers were
identified as Hamas supporters and had been formerly imprisoned in Israel. As
for the new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the revised list of hostages to
be freed only includes 8 children. Hamas explained that this was because of the
2 Israelis with dual, Russian and Italian citizenship, who were released
yesterday in a show of goodwill towards the Russian president Vladimir Putin. (AMP)

30 November 2023