September 16, 2025
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 16.09.2025, 13:55
Survey. Around 57% of Romanian citizens are in favour of their country’s allocating 5% of GDP to defence, as requested by NATO, while 38% do not support this view, according to an opinion poll published today. 47% of respondents believe that in the current geopolitical and military context, it is possible for Russia to attack Romania, while 43% do not share this view. 37% say Romania should have no involvement with respect to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and its support should be, at best, humanitarian. 33% believe Romania should be involved more, and 26% say what Romania is doing at the moment is sufficient. Also, 51% of respondents say they are satisfied with the performance of president Nicuşor Dan with respect to the country’s foreign policy. Among foreign leaders, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, and of the United States, Donald Trump, enjoy the highest confidence ratings, with 44%.
IAEA. Foreign minister Oana Ţoiu is promoting Romania’s candidacy to a seat in the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency while attending the 69th session of the Agency’s General Conference in Vienna. The final vote will take place on Thursday, one year and a half since the start of the candidacy process. Romania aims to continue to promote the use of atomic energy for peaceful, safe and responsible purposes, contribute to the consolidation of the global non-proliferation and nuclear security regime and support projects of medical use. Minister Oana Ţoiu on Monday had talks with the general director of IAEA Rafael Mariano Grossi and is today meeting US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
OECD. Romania has made significant progress towards joining the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Almost two thirds of technical assessments have been concluded successfully, and if this pace is maintained, Romania may join the other 38 OECD members next year. These are the main conclusions of a series of talks held by the organisation’s secretary general Mathias Cormann in Bucharest with Romania’s president, prime minister and cabinet and Parliament members. Mathias Cormann emphasised that OECD membership brings substantial benefits with respect to good governance, boosts investments, and in time, incomes and living standards.
Gaza. The Israeli army last night launched the main phase of its ground offensive on Gaza city, said a defence official, who estimated that 2-3,000 Hamas fighters are hiding in the biggest city in the Palestinian enclave. The army has called on the city’s around 1 million inhabitants to move to the so-called humanitarian area in the south. Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, the Israeli army has kept Gaza under siege ever since, causing a humanitarian disaster amounting to dozens of people dead, large-scale destruction, massive displacement and grave shortages of food and water. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is visiting Jerusalem, has promised prime minister Netanyahu the US’s unflinching support in eliminating Hamas.
Drones. Poland’s State Protection Service last night neutralised a drone flying over government buildings, said prime minister Donald Tusk on the social media platform X, amid growing regional tensions following recent breaches of Poland’s airspace. Two Belarusian citizens were detained in connection with the incident and the police are investigating the circumstances. Poland and the NATO member states with military presence on its territory have been on alert since the intrusion of around 20 Russian drones on the night of 9th September. A number of European states, including France, Germany and Sweden, as well as the UK, have announced enhanced contributions to Poland’s air defence along the latter’s eastern border with Ukraine and Belarus, which is Moscow’s ally. In another move, NATO is conducting an analysis to determine if the Russian drones entered the allied airspace of Poland and Romania intentionally. At the end of last week, the Romanian authorities aid a Russian drone remained in Romanian airspace for almost an hour. F-16 and Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft flown by Romanian and German pilots monitored the area. The pilots received the green light to shoot down the target, but decided not to open fire because of the risk of collateral damage, said the defence ministry in Bucharest. (CM)
