June 11, 2024
A roundup of the latest local and international news
Newsroom, 11.06.2024, 13:45
BERLIN The head of the Romanian diplomacy Luminita Odobescu is today participating in a conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine underway in Berlin. The conference, brings together representatives of the governments and the private sector, including 10 Prime Ministers. ”Urgent solutions for Ukraine’s energy sector will be our first priority”, said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky who arrived in Berlin on Monday night in order to attend the conference and met chancellor Olaf Scholz. Chancellor Scholz and I are going to talk about the continuation of the assistance in the defence sector, and ways of expanding Ukraine’s air sector and the joint arms production.” Zelensky wrote on a social network. Press agencies have recalled that Germany has recently authorised Ukraine to use German weapons to hit targets in Russia, something it used to be reluctant to in the past like many other countries for fear of conflict escalation. In Germany, Zelensky will be meeting federal president Frank Walter Steinmeier and the Bundestag president Barbel Bas and will be visiting a military base where Ukrainian soldiers are training. On Saturday and Sunday he will travel to Switzerland to attend a high level conference over peace in Ukraine, which brings together over 90 countries and organisations but not Russia and China.
B9 Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has said that Russia will continue ”to pose the biggest risk to European security and NATO states must be ready to react accordingly”. Iohannis has made the statement at the B9 Summit underway in Riga, a summit, which it chairs jointly with the presidents of Latvia and Poland. Iohannis said the states in the eastern flank, part of this format must be prepared as the dramatic regional developments are increasingly calling for thorough coordination and focus.” The head of the Romanian state has also pleaded for carrying on support for Ukraine as long as needed. ”Other vulnerable NATO partners, especially the Republic of Moldova, should get our attention and assistance to strengthen their resilience”, Iohannis went on to say. The event in Riga is also being attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The high level meeting of the states in the Bucharest 9 format also known as B9 takes place a month ahead of the NATO anniversary summit in Washington, which marks 75 years since the foundation of the alliance. Bucharest 9 includes Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the three Baltic states: namely the states in the NATO eastern flank. The group was founded upon a Romanian-Polish initiative upon the illegal annexation by Russia of the Crimean peninsula back in 2014.
VOTE The United Right Alliance has got 27% of the votes in the Sunday’s election for the General Council of the city of Bucharest, followed by the PSD with 26.5% and the PNL with over 12%, according to partial data released by the Permanent Electoral Authority. Nicusor Dan, an independent candidate supported by the United Right Alliance, has been reelected mayor general of Bucharest with 47% of the votes. The PSD has mustered most of the votes nation wise, winning mayor offices, local and county councils. It was followed by their partner in the present ruling coalition, the PNL. Their joint ticket has raked up almost half of the votes. The ultra-nationalist AUR party came second in the European election.
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