NATO The president of
Romania Klaus Iohannis will receive the
NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, in Bucharest on Monday. Stoltenberg
will chair the meeting of NATO foreign ministers hosted by the Romanian capital city as of Tuesday. Also on this
occasion, the US state secretary Antony Blinken will travel to Bucharest, and
will have meetings with president Iohannis, PM Nicolae Ciucă and the foreign
minister Bogdan Aurescu. The NATO meeting, the
first of this kind organised in Romania, focuses on
supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion, energy security and
implementing the Alliance’s new strategic concept.
MLM A Munich Leaders
Meeting (MLM) takes place in Bucharest on Monday and Tuesday. The Romanian
foreign ministry is co-hosting this prestigious event, which is part of the Munich
Security Conference (MSC). Attending will be over 75 senior officials from over
25 countries, including current and former officials, experts, analysts and
opinion leaders. The agenda includes relevant topics for international
security, with an emphasis on developments in the Black Sea and Western Balkans
regions. Other topics will be the European security architecture, implementing
the new NATO Strategic Concept, hybrid threats, food security, and the energy
crisis. The conclusions of the meeting in Bucharest will contribute to shaping
the agenda of next year’s Munich Security Conference.
NATIONAL DAY Events
devoted to Romania’s National Day on December 1 begin in Alba Iulia on November
30, with military and wreath laying ceremonies. On December 1, more than 850 troops
will parade in Alba Iulia, including a French unit part of the NATO battlegroup
deployed in Cincu, Braşov County. In Bucharest, over 1,500 troops and staff of the defence
ministry, interior ministry, the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Special
Telecommunications Service and the Penitentiary Agency as well as vehicles and
40 aircraft will take part in a military parade on December 1. According to a
defence ministry news release, around 150 troops from Belgium, France, North
Macedonia, R. Of Moldova, the Netherlands, Portugal and the US, will also take
part. Romanian military personnel on missions abroad will also organise special
ceremonies.
ENVIRONMENT The
Romanian environment ministry launched a national forestation programme
financed from EU funds under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The
decision was made because forests cover less than 30% of the country’s surface,
as against the European average of 40%. In some counties in the south and
south-east of the country, the ratio is even have less than 5%. Farmers who no
longer want to keep their farmland under crops may turn it into forests or
shelterbelts. The government provides up to EUR 20,000 for a hectare of oak
forest in plains areas and up to EUR 17,000 per hectare of shelterbelts, with
an additional EUR 456 per year for each hectare of forest for 20 years.
UKRAINE Heavy rainfall is expected in
Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv as of Sunday, with sub-zero temperatures both
during the day and at night. Millions of people in the city and the region
around it are still without electricity and heat, after Russian shelling
damaged the country’s energy infrastructure. The region of Dnipropetrovsk, in
central Ukraine, was once again hit by 5 Russian missile strikes and heavy
artillery attacks, the regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said. Homes and
other buildings were destroyed, but no victims were reported. However, in the
southern region of Kherson, where the Russian troops pulled out 2 weeks ago, at
least 32 people were killed in the bombings, the Ukrainian police reported.
ENESCU The George
Enescu International Music Festival was shortlisted for the prestigious International
Opera Awards, the ‘Oscars’ of the opera world, the festival organisers have
announced. The awards ceremony takes place on Monday at Teatro Real (Madrid,
Spain). The 2021 edition was shortlisted in the Festivals section, alongside
other top-level events in the world of international classical music, such as
the Donizetti Festival and Garsington Opera.
HANDBALL The men’s
handball teams of Romania, Egypt, Algeria and Slovakia take part in this year’s
Carpaţi Trophy, on December 28th and 29th in Oradea,
north-western Romania, the Romanian Handball Federation announced. Egypt and
Algeria are qualified to the forthcoming World Championships scheduled for January
2023. Romania’s manager Xavi Pascual invited 24 players to convene for the
competition on December 26th. (AMP)
