February 4, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 04.02.2023, 18:46

Visit. Romanian prime minister Nicolae
Ciucă, who is on a trip to Egypt this weekend, today had one-on-one talks with
his counterpart Mostafa Madbouly, followed by a meeting of the two official
delegations. The talks looked at ways to boost bilateral political, commercial
and economic relations, with special emphasis on agriculture, according to
Radio Romania’s correspondent in Egypt. The Romanian prime minister said the
Russian invasion of Ukraine affected not only the countries in the region and
efforts must thus be made together, so that people, economies and countries
should not suffer. Egypt’s prime minister told Ciucă about the level of
competitiveness of the Egyptian industry and agriculture and aspects related to
the fertiliser and petrochemical industry. On Sunday, prime minister Ciucă
is due to meet the president of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the
minister for oil and mineral resources Tarek El Molla for talks on energy
projects and to attend an Egypt-Romania business forum and the signing of a
number of bilateral agreements.

Price cap. The G7 countries and Australia
will also implement the European Union’s decision to cap prices of Russian oil
products transported by sea in order to limit Russia’s ability to finance its
war in Ukraine and to prevent disruptions of global supply. The European Union
said the cap is 100 dollars per barrel on premium products and 45 dollars per
barrel for products that sell at a discount, such as fuel oil. The cap becomes
effective on Sunday. The European Union and the G7 had earlier also placed a
cap on seaborne crude oil.

Ukraine. Portugal will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, said its prime
minister Antonio Costa on Saturday, but offered no details
about how many will be shipped, Reuters notes. Costa said Portugal is working
with Germany to obtain the parts needed to repair a number of tanks that are
not operational. Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said recently his
country was to receive between 120 and 140 western tanks in a first wave of
deliveries from a coalition of 12 countries. According to Reuters, Kyiv
obtained pledges from the West to supply main battle tanks to help it defend
itself from Russia’s large-scale invasion, while Moscow is making huge efforts
to advance in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv will also receive rockets capable to hit targets at a distance of 150
km, enabling it to strike Russian targets across most of Russian-held
territory. Known as GLSDB, these rockets are part of the latest package of
military equipment for Ukraine worth almost 2.2 billion dollars announced on
Friday by the United States. The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said the supply of more advanced US weaponry
to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia.

Anniversary. Romania
and France celebrated on Saturday the 15th anniversary of a joint
declaration on the strategic partnership between the two countries. The
declaration signed on 4February 2008 in Bucharest provides a new
consolidated framework for cooperation and the development of the profound and
longstanding links between our countries and for the promotion of a common
vision on a bilateral, European and international level, reads a statement
from the Romanian foreign ministry and the French ministry for Europe and
foreign affairs. France’s contribution to the consolidation of NATO’s eastern
flank, including by taking on the role of framework nation of the battle group
in Romania, the close and substantial cooperation on the support for Ukraine and
the Republic of Moldova and France’s firm and active support for Romania’s
accession to the Schengen area are undeniable examples of genuine friendship,
the statement also says. (CM)