February 23, 2024 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 23.02.2024, 19:59
Ukraine – Approximately 7 million Ukrainians have left their country since the beginning of the war, 2 years ago, and 77,000 are currently in Romania. Of these refugees, over 80% are women and children. On Friday, at the North Railway Station in Bucharest, a symbolic place where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians entered our country, the Romanian authorities, non-governmental organizations and refugees marked these two years of war. President Klaus Iohannis appreciated, on this occasion, that “it is important for Europe to remain united, despite the difficulties it faces, and to continue providing the help that Ukraine needs”. He also said that “it is necessary for the authorities, together with the international partners, to continue efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees and especially for the integration of those who are on the territory of the Romanian state”. Iohannis will go to Paris on Monday to participate in a working meeting on the war in Ukraine and on the intensification of efforts to continue the support given to this country. The meeting is organized by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and it will be attended by a series of NATO leaders.
Meeting – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Luminiţa Odobescu, and her Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, adopted, in New Delhi, the Joint Declaration on the 10th anniversary of the Romania-India Extended Partnership. The meeting between the two officials took place on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue International Conference. The declaration aims at strengthening Romanian-Indian bilateral relations, as well as cooperation in a multilateral context. It also emphasizes the sectoral priority approach in three areas, namely energy, IT&C and manufacturing, according to a Foreign Ministry press release. Both ministers appreciated the progress made in the development of Romanian-Indian relations and confirmed the common commitment to strengthening collaboration in priority areas, with an emphasis on economic relations and sectoral cooperation.
Tennis – The Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea was defeated by the Italian Jasmine Paolini, 6-2, 7-6, on Friday, in the semifinals of the WTA 1,000 tournament in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), which has total prizes up for grabs worth over 3.2 million dollars. The Romanian was coming after two exhausting matches, with the Croatian Donna Vekic (2 h 15 min) and the Czech Marketa Vondrousova (2 h 41 min), while Paolini benefited, on Thursday, from the absence of her opponent in the quarterfinals, the Kazakh Elena Rîbakina. Cîrstea, who will equal her best ranking in her career, on Monday, when the new WTA ranking is published (21st place), got a check of almost 160 thousand dollars and 390 points.
Government – The Romanian Agriculture Minister, Florin Barbu, is called, next week, to the Senate, at the Ministerial Question Time. From the opposition, Save Romania Union – USR asked him to publicly present to what extent the demands of the farmers who protested in January were resolved, and also to provide explanations regarding, among others, the transit of grains from Ukraine and the increase in food prices.
Moscow – The mother of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has accused the Russian authorities of wanting to bury her son in secret, without a funeral, given that they have so far refused to hand over the body to the family, Reuters reports. Liudmila Navalnaya said that she was blackmailed and threatened to accept a secret burial. Alexei Navalny died last week, at the age of 47, in an Arctic penal colony where he was imprisoned. Just the day before, he had appeared at a trial and seemed healthy and in good spirits. Navalny’s lawyers say that on the death certificate drawn up by the authorities it is written that he died of natural causes. International leaders, family members and Russian supporters of Navalny say that the Russian authorities are responsible for his death, and some have even claimed that he was murdered. In the past, Navalny had survived a poisoning with a neurotoxic agent, which had been previously used by the Russian secret services. (LS)
