February 12, 2022

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 12.02.2022, 13:55

NATO — The presence of NATO troops in Romania is proof of the Allied solidarity and of the fact that, although there is a real risk that Russia might invade Ukraine, Romania is not alone, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. On Friday, he visited the Mihail Kogălniceanu military base in southeastern Romania, along with Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis and the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mircea Geoană. The first Stryker armored personnel carriers have already arrived here, and 1,000 U.S. troops are expected to arrive from Germany to strengthen the Alliances Eastern Flank. With the arrival of the Task Force Cougar detachment, the number of American soldiers in Romania will increase to almost 2,000. Besides the US, France has also announced its willingness to send troops to Romania. A NATO member since 2004, Romania already hosts 900 American, 250 Polish and 140 Italian soldiers. A US Air Force detachment of about 150 soldiers and eight F-16 Fighting Falcon planes has been conducting joint training missions, for about two weeks, with the military and F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft within the Romanian Air Force since Friday. The American planes will also perform enhanced air-policing missions, together with Romanian and Italian aircraft, which have been in Romania since December last year. A senior Pentagon official said the United States had decided to send an additional 3,000 troops to Poland as well.

COVID-19 — The number of new COVID-19 cases continues to decline in Romania. On Saturday, 18,750 new cases and 157 deaths were reported, 13 of which were from previous days. The COVID-19 incidence rate calculated at 14 days for Bucharest is, on Saturday, 38.02 cases per thousand inhabitants. This is the highest contamination rate recorded so far in the Capital. The authorities are considering the possibility of relaxing the protection measures taken in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, gradually, following the model of countries that have already overcome the peak of current wave, said the head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU), Raed Arafat. In his opinion, the new cases are on a declining trend, and if the pace is maintained, we might get rid of restrictions before the Easter holidays. In turn, the coordinator of the National vaccination campaign, military doctor Valeriu Gheorghiţă, said that in the future, vaccination against this virus will be seasonal, after the model of the flu vaccine, but the vaccine will be adapted to the strain specific for that period. He announced that, at present, the vaccination rate among the adult population is 50.5%.

COVID world — The acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic will end this year if the target of 70% of the worlds population getting vaccinated is reached, said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He estimates that this will happen by June or July. In another development, the Chinese drug regulatory agency on Saturday approved the conditional use of treatment with Paxlovid, produced by Pfizer, being the first anti-COVID-19 tablet approved in this country for the treatment of coronavirus infection. Chinese officials say that studies on the drug are still needed and that the results will be submitted to the Beijing authorities. In Europe, Belgium has decided to relax anti-COVID-19 measures in restaurants, nightclubs, pubs and cultural venues after the country overcame the peak of Omicron contamination. In turn, Austria continues to relax restrictions. As of Saturday, people will only have to wear FFP2 masks in shops or museums. Iceland also plans to lift all restrictions by the end of February, two weeks earlier than initially planned.

Moldova — Romania supports Moldovas efforts targeted at making reforms, getting closer to the European community, as well as increasing resilience in key sectors for citizens, the Romania PM Nicolae Ciucă said after a visit to Chisinau on Friday. He also said that Romania is the first trading partner of the Republic of Moldova and one of its main investors. A series of bilateral documents were signed at the end of the joint meeting of the Romanian and Moldovan governments, including the Intergovernmental Agreement on the implementation of an assistance program based on a non-reimbursable financial aid of 100 million Euros from Romania. Nicolae Ciucă and his Moldovan counterpart Natalia Gavriliţa also signed the Joint Declaration on strengthening cooperation in the fields of economy and investments. Cooperation agreements have also been concluded in the fields of defense, justice and home affairs. The Romanian PM was received by the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, whom he ensured of his full support for the implementation of the reform measures, especially in the field of the rule of law.

Russia — The Russian President Vladimir Putin and the US President Joe Biden will have a telephone conversation today, the RIA news agency reported, quoting the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Also today, Vladimir Putin will discuss with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, according to the TASS agency. A Russian military invasion of Ukraine, marked by a massive air raid campaign and a “rapid attack” on Kiev, is a “very real possibility” in the coming days, the White House warned. Russia maintains more than 100,000 troops and fighting equipment near the border with the former Soviet republic. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis believes that ensuring a consolidated deterrence and defense posture in a unitary and coherent manner on the entire eastern flank from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea contributes to regional stability as well as to the security of the alliance as a whole. Present at the consultations that the US President, Joe Biden, had, on Friday, with leaders of NATO and the EU institutions on the topic of regional security, the Romanian president expressed his firm support for the continuation of the political-diplomatic dialogue with Russia solutions to de-escalate the situation without compromising NATO’s fundamental principles and the international law. (LS)