Tag: multilateralism

Multilateralism – The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Friday participated in a ministerial videoconference of the Alliance for Multilateralism, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the participants assessed the way in which the international system acted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and looked into ways to consolidate the multilateral architecture, especially in the health domain. The participants also looked into the fight against infodemic — this complex information phenomenon with various elements among which fake news, hearsay, inaccurate pieces of information which undermine the stability of societies, the credibility of institutions and induce panic and anxiety among people. In his speech minister Bogdan Aurescu hailed the 75th anniversary of the UN, the creation of the organization being a reference moment in the international system set up after WWII. He expressed Romania’s firm commitment to multilateralism and underlined the importance of protecting and consolidating multilateralism to face the challenges generated by the pandemic, including the so-called infodemic. The meeting, hosted by Jean-Yves le Drian, the French Foreign Minister and Heiko Maas, the German Foreign Minister, was attended by more than 40 ministers, state secretaries and other officials from around the world.

Coronavirus RO — In Romania, latest figures published by the Strategic Communication Group show more than 25,600 cases of coronavirus infection. Most of the cases have so far been reported in Bucharest and Suceva county, in the north east. Of the contaminated people, more than 18,100 have recovered, with 1,579 people having died. In this context, the Liberal PM Ludovic Orban has asked the authorities to mobilize and undertake more checks. He has pointed out that in the context of the danger posed by the coronavirus being questioned by some politicians, the current public information campaign must convince citizens to observe protection rules. In another development, Romanian researchers say that people who have been contaminated and recovered from COVID-19 infection are quite unlikely to get infected again. They have reached this conclusion after having analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 virus identified in Romania and which was proved to originate from China. Most probably the spread of the virus in Romania occurred at community level, across the country’s regions.

Coronavirus world — The total number of coronavirus cases around the world has exceeded 9.9 million, with 496 thousand deaths reported, according to worldometers.info. The epicenter of the pandemic is now on the two American continents, where Brazil is expected to reach soon the threshold of 1.3 million contaminations. So far 56 thousand Brazilians have been killed by the virus and the situation is worsening, as the virus is spreading to smaller localities from where the patients are transported to urban centers with better medical infrastructure. The hardest hit country remains the US with more than 127 thousand deaths and 2.5 million confirmed cases. In another move, the EU member states have to decide on a list of 15 states whose citizens can travel to the EU as of July 1. The proposed list includes 14 countries: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay and possibly China. Also the list might include such states as Andorra, Monaco, the Vatican and San Marino.

Weather –— Hundreds of people have been evacuated and hundred of households, plots of land and roads in the southwest of Romania have been flooded by the Jiu River which outburst its banks. In the northeast, on the Prut River, the high flood propagating from Ukraine is now subsiding, after having reached its maximum level on Friday. The weather is warm with rainfalls in the north and northwest. The highs of the day range from 28 to 32 degrees C, with a 30 degree reading in Bucharest at noon. (tr. L. Simion)