NATO Romania, as a NATO member country and strategic partner of the US,
\nbenefits from all the security guarantees that it needs, in the context of the
\nmost serious crisis since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The statement was made
\nby Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on Friday, during a visit he made
\ntogether with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Alliance’s
\nDeputy Secretary General, Mircea Geoana, at the military base in Mihail
\nKogalniceanu, south-eastern Romania. The officials met with military personnel
\nfrom allied nations deployed to Romania. In his turn, Stoltenberg said
\nthe presence of NATO troops in Romania is important because it is a powerful
\ndemonstration of NATO unity. Around 1,000 American military were relocated to
\nRomania, amid concerns raised by the Russian military build-up at the Ukrainian
\nborder. France has also voiced willingness to deploy troops to Romania. A NATO
\nmember since 2004, Romania was already hosting 900 American, 250 Polish and 140
\nItalian troops. A unit of the US Air Forces
\nin Europe (USAFE), comprising around 150 troops and 8 F-16 Fighting Falcons, will
\nhave joint training missions with troops and aircraft of the Romanian
\nAir Forces for 2 weeks, as of Friday. According to a news release, the US
\naircraft will also conduct enhanced air policing missions, jointly with Romanian
\ntroops and with the Italian Air Forces unit deployed to Romania in December.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
CORONAVIRUS The number of new Covid-19 infections continues to drop in Romania.
\nOn Friday, the Group for Strategic Communication announced 22,737 new cases and
\n132 deaths, five of which from an earlier date. The Romanian authorities
\nconsider easing the restrictions taken in the context of the pandemic, but in a
\ngradual manner, as did the countries that have already overcome the peak of the
\ncurrent wave, the head of the Department for Emergencies, Raed Arafat, said.
\nThe number of new cases is dropping, and if we stay on this trend, we could be
\nrestriction free by Easter, Arafat said. In turn, the head of the immunization programme,
\nValeriu Gheorghita, said that in the future vaccination against Covid-19 will
\nbe seasonal, just like the flu vaccine, and adjusted to the strain in
\ncirculation at a particular moment. The vaccination rate among adults stands at
\n50.5% in Romania at present, Valeriu Gheorghita said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
MOLDOVA A number of bilateral documents were signed in Chisinau on
\nFriday after a joint meeting of the Romanian and Moldovan governments,
\nincluding an inter-government agreement under which Romania is to provide EUR
\n100 million worth of non-reimbursable aid. The Romanian PM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 and
\nhis Moldovan counterpart Natalia Gavrili\u0163a also signed a joint statement on
\nstrengthening cooperation in economy and investments. Other agreements concern
\nthe building, maintenance, repair and use of a cross-border bridge in Ungheni,
\nand roaming and international call tariffs, cooperation in energy security,
\ndigitisation, research and innovation and defence, justice and home affairs. The
\nRomanian PM emphasised that this is the most substantial openness ever seen in
\nbilateral relations, and promised that Romania will remain a determined and
\nvocal supporter of the Republic of Moldova’s EU accession efforts. In turn,
\nMoldova’s PM Natalia Gavrili\u0163a
\nsaid her Cabinet has undertaken to provide a predictable and attractive
\nenvironment for investments in the country, in line with European best
\npractices.Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 was received by the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, to
\nwhom he conveyed Romania’s full support for the reforms she initiated in the
\njudicial field in particular.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu (56 WTA) Friday defeated
\nTereza Martincova (42 WTA) of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-2, and qualified into
\nthe semis of the Sankt Petersburg tournament. Martincova had won (6-7, 6-4,
\n6-4) her only previous match against Begu, in Tashkent in 2019. (A.M.P.)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Click here for a roundup of local and world news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[29096,36552,35374,29621,33075,30936,29286,30289,30820,30320,29130,13794,29710,29310,28939,29523,32402],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-105688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-begu","tag-build-up","tag-covid-19","tag-defence","tag-eucom","tag-f-16","tag-government","tag-joint","tag-meeting","tag-military","tag-moldova","tag-nato","tag-restrictions","tag-russia","tag-tennis","tag-us","tag-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n