October 28, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 28.10.2023, 20:00

ISRAEL
Romania and other countries are
making joint efforts to help the over 3,000 people in Gaza with dual
citizenship, including Romanian nationals, to leave that region, PM Marcel
Ciolacu said. He explained that the situation was not easy to handle, and added
that 260 applications have been received from Romanian nationals who want to
leave Gaza, but many Palestinians are trying to do the same. What matters is
for the situation not to spiral out of control, he also said. The
Israeli army Saturday announced it entered the north of
Gaza Strip and expanded military operations in the Palestinian enclave, while
stepping up attacks against Hamas. The
army once again asked the locals still in the north of Gaza Strip to move
immediately to the south, explaining that the north is currently a battlefield.
According to Israeli army estimates, some 700,000 people have already left the
area, and the UN says out of the almost 2.2 million people in Gaza Strip, around
1.4 million have been relocated since the conflict began. In fresh talks with the Israeli defence minister, the Pentagon chief
Lloyd Austin called
for the protection of civilians during the operation. On Friday night, the UN
General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire. The
resolution is not compulsory, but it has political weight. Israel and the US
voted against, while Romania abstained.

DIPLOMACY
The Romanian foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu Friday had a telephone
conversation with the British foreign secretary James Cleverly, to discuss the
security situation in Israel and Gaza Strip, focusing on the need to ensure
close coordination in order to avoid regional spill-over. According to the
Romanian foreign ministry, the 2 officials emphasised the importance of
continued humanitarian aid to the population in Gaza and of the immediate and
unconditional release of all hostages.The
Romanian diplomacy chief also discussed with her Qatari counterpart, Sheikh
Mohammed Al Thani, given that Qatar is a mediator in the Hamas hostage crisis.
Odobescu appreciated Qatar’s diplomatic efforts to mitigate the humanitarian
crisis, and spoke about the aid Romania has decided to send there.

AMBASSADOR The Black Sea region plays an important
role for NATO, and Romania is a very close partner for the USA, the US
Ambassador to Bucharest Kathleen Kavalec reiterated. In an interview to Radio
Romania, the US official said that Romania, which is located next to the
conflict in Ukraine, has faced problems like the Ukrainian refugee crisis and
the transport of grains via Romanian sea ports, and in this context the
security and defence relations between the 2 countries have become even closer.
We have tripled the number of US troops in Romania, so now we have over 3,000 American
troops here and we are working with our Romanian partners with respect to
defence and deterrence, to safeguard every piece of NATO territory, Kathleen
Kavalec pointed out.

POPULATION The population of Romania on July 1 was
approx. 21.9 million, down 0.3% since the corresponding month of last year. Almost
3 million of them are currently living abroad. Romania is also facing
population ageing, with 125 elderly citizens for each 100 youth. The average
age is 42.4 years, 0.3 years more than on July 1, 2022. The number of citizens
in urban communities is nearly 3 million higher than the number of rural
inhabitants, however urban population dropped by 0.8% over the past year while
the rural population grew by 0.3%.

UKRAINE Ukraine is seeking international support for its peace plan,
in a 2-day meeting held as of today in Malta. As many as 50 countries are
taking part, but Russia is not among them. According to AFP, this is the 3rd
meeting of this kind, and organisers hope it would result in a joint
declaration. The 10-point plan proposed by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr
Zelenskyy includes, among other things, the pull out of Russian troops from the
occupied Ukrainian territories, including Donbas, part of which is under
separatist control since 2014, and Crimea, occupied and annexed by Russia in 2014.
Last year, Moscow annexed 4 Ukrainian regions, partly occupied by its troops
after the large-scale invasion of February 24.

DST
On Saturday night, Romania switches to winter time, setting clocks back one
hour from 4 AM to 3 AM. Sunday will thus be 25-hour long. Daylight saving time,
first suggested by the scientist Benjamin Franklin in 1784, is currently used
in 70 countries. The concept has come under debate in recent years, with the EU
asking member states to end seasonal clock changes and choose either winter
time or summer time, but a decision in this respect is yet to be made. (AMP)