May 4, 2023 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 04.05.2023, 20:30

COURT After an
unexpected visit to the headquarters of the International Criminal Court in the
Hague on Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called for
setting up a special court to deal with ‘crimes of aggression’. Zelensky has
delivered a speech entitled ‘There is no peace without Justice’ during which he
says that Russian president Vladimir Putin will have to appear before an
international war crimes tribunal after Ukraine wins the war. The International
Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes charges in
March. On Wednesday, Zelensky attended a summit of the Nordic countries in
Helsinki.

MEETING A two-day trilateral meeting
Romania -The USA – the Republic of Moldova on defence issues was held in
Bucharest. The event was also attended by representatives of the British
Ministry of Defence. The Romanian State Secretary for Defence Policy and
International Relations, Simona Cojocaru says that under the present security
context, the Republic of Moldova has been exposed to hybrid threats and to
Russia’s propaganda and misinformation campaigns and supporting the neighboring
country in strengthening its resilience and defence capabilities is a strategic
priority for Romania. The support proved today by Romania, the USA and the UK
shows very clearly the Republic of Moldova is not alone in this process, Simona
Cojocaru went on to say. In another development, the European Foreign Ministers
on Thursday approved a support package for the Republic of Moldova’s defence
sector of 40 million Euros and also 30 million for Georgia.

MOURNING Serbia
declared three-day mourning in memory of the victims of the massacre committed on
Wednesday at a school in Belgrade, where a 14-year-old schoolboy shot dead
eight children and the school’s security guard and wounded six other classmates
and a teacher. He is believed to have stolen the gun of his father, who
admitted he had trained him at a shooting range. The minor’s father was
arrested. The incident caused immense shock in Serbia, where, despite the large
number of weapons owned by the population, gun incidents are rare. In the wake
of the massacre, president Aleksandar Vučić announced a number of measures,
including lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 and tougher
arms and ammunitions regulations.

IMPORTS Romanian
agriculture minister Petre Daea on Wednesday briefed his visiting Ukrainian
counterpart Mykola Solskyi on a European Commission decision from 2nd
May to introduce exceptional and temporary preventive measures on imports of a
limited number of products from Ukraine. These involve wheat, maize, rapeseed
and sunflower seeds and are aimed at easing the logistical blockages involving
these products in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The new
European Commission regulations will be in place in all member states until 5th
June. The first meeting between the two ministers took place in Bucharest on 21st
April. They agreed to hold weekly talks on the amounts of products leaving
Ukraine for transit, to provide Romania with complete and accurate data.

(bill)