February 20, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 20.02.2023, 19:43

Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden on Monday paid a surprise visit to Kyiv, where he met
his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Biden announced additional aid
worth 500 million dollars for Ukraine and said that new sanctions against
Russia were coming this week. Zelensky said he discussed long-range weaponry
with Biden. Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciucă
said the visit is very important and conveys a message of solidarity and
commitment to further support for Ukraine from the international community,
regardless of the situation on the ground. Joe Biden next travelled to Poland, a
key US ally, where on Wednesday he will also meet the leaders of Bucharest 9,
including Romanian president Klaus Iohannis. Bucharest Nine is a group of NATO
countries from Eastern Europe consisting of Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. The summit
is held in the context of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s war of
aggression against Ukraine and is aimed at further ensuring the coordination
between the US and the allies on NATO’s eastern flank amid the security
challenges generated by the war, according to a statement from the Romanian
president’s office.

Sanctions. Romania proposes that the
European Union adopts a separate set of sanctions against entities or persons
supporting Russia’s attempts to destabilise the Republic of Moldova. The
Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Monday in Brussels that these
measures are called for in light of recent intelligence obtained by the Moldovan
officials proving Moscow’s intention to destabilise Moldova as part of a plan
that includes the war in Ukraine. Romania’s proposal comes as the European
Union is holding talks on adopting a tenth package of sanctions against Russia.

Timisoara. Timişoara
(western Romania), which has officially become a European Capital of Culture in
2023, looks forward with confidence to the impressive show that will unfold
until February 2024, said the city’s mayor Dominic Fritz, at the end of the
programme’s inaugural events. Under the slogan Light up your city
1,000 events are scheduled for a year, with an international message about the
cultural values ​​of the city transmitted by the hundreds of diplomats and
journalists who were in Timisoara this weekend, as well as by those up to a
million visitors who are expected here this year, as the mayor of Timisoara
stressed. For three days, this past weekend, the city hosted concerts,
exhibitions, debates, tourist tours and a gala show attended by hundreds of
guests, including dozens of ambassadors and officials from Romania and abroad.

Tennis. Romania’s Ana Bogdan, world
no. 75, on Monday reached the second round at the WTA Dubai tennis tournament
in the United Arab Emirates, worth 2.8 million dollars in prize money. She
defeated Germany’s Laura Siegemund, world
no. 130, 7-5, 6-3. Another Romanian player, Sorana
Cîrstea, world no. 70, defeated world no. 12 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil in
three sets, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5, in the opening round. (CM)