February 18, 2025
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 18.02.2025, 13:55
VOTE Over 4 thousand applications have been registered on the webpage of the Permanent Election Authority for postal voting in the presidential election in Romania in May. The registration deadline for postal voting is March 20 and to cast a ballot in a certain polling station, March 4. The election period for the presidential voting kicks off this week on February 20 when the Central Election Bureau is set up. Candidacies can be submitted until March 15 and the election campaign kicks off on April 4.
MEETING The Russian and American Foreign Ministers are today meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to prepare a high-level summit between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in an attempt to re-launch the relationship after three years of Russia’s isolation due to its invasion of Ukraine. According to the international press the talks are causing unrest among Washington’s European allies, concerned about the fact that the rapprochement between the two super-powers is taking place without their involvement and will have as a result a peace treaty imposed on Ukraine. President Zelenskyy says he is not going to accept any outcome of the Russian-American talks held in the absence of Kyiv, and the European leaders who convened in an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday said they maintain their support for Ukraine concurrently speeding up their defence. Only some European leaders were invited to the informal meeting hosted by president Macron, such as the German chancellor, the Polish, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and British premiers, as well as the president of the European Council, the head of the European Commission and the NATO Secretary General.
DIPLOMACY Romania’s interim president, Ilie Bolojan, on Tuesday said at the annual meeting of the heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Bucharest that Romania is a democratic state, which continues to take actions to strengthen its institutions and the people’s trust in them. For the upcoming presidential election he pledged a free, fair and transparent election process. “Romania has a ruling coalition, which ensures the country’s stability”, the president says adding that Romania’s foreign policy will maintain its normal course as an EU and NATO member with a strategic partnership with the USA being also open to cooperation with all the partners sharing the same values and principles. According to Bolojan, Russia’s aggression in the neighboring country must stop and a ceasefire followed by just and sustainable peace is an objective, which must be observed not only by the parties involved, but also by the entire international community. Bolojan also went on to say that the support for the ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova is a duty and this state’s resilience must be strengthened in the context of the parliamentary election in 2025.
GAZA Israel is getting ready to receive the last six alive Israeli hostages, as envisaged by the first stage of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza. We recall that Hamas caved in to pressure from the brokering Arab countries and is going to transfer the bodies of some Israeli hostages who died in captivity, on Thursday. The last four bodies are to be transferred next Thursday. The next stages, providing for the permanent end of the war and the reconstruction of the enclave destroyed by bombardments are still under a question mark after Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday voiced readiness to endorse the US president Donald Trump’s plan, which rules out the Hamas movement and the Palestinian Authority from the future of the Gaza Strip. According to Radio Romania correspondent in Israel, many Arab countries started coming up with their proposals, aimed at avoiding the relocation of the Palestinian population from the enclave, as envisaged by the US plan.
(bill)
