June 24, 2024
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 24.06.2024, 14:00
VISIT – Chief of Defense Staff, General Gheorghiţă Vlad, on Sunday met the Defense Minister of Luxembourg, Yuriko Backes, and Luxembourg’s Chief of Defense Staff, Steve Thull on the sidelines of his visit to Luxembourg. According to a Defense Ministry release, the agenda of talks focused on security developments in the extended Black Sea region, defense architecture in Euro-Atlantic space, as well as intensifying cooperation by means of multinational exercises on Romania’s territory. General Vlad highlighted the contribution of Luxembourg’s troops to the Forward Presence Battle Group deployed to Romania with a view to consolidating NATO’s deterrence and defense posture.
FAC – Also in Luxembourg, Romania’s Foreign Minister Luminița Odobescu on Monday is taking part in the Foreign Affairs Council meeting. Participants will address Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, developments in the Middle East and Georgia. According to the Romanian MFA, talks on Russia’s war in Ukraine will focus on recent developments on the ground and EU military assistance to Kyiv. New sanctions against Russia and Belarus will also be discussed, in addition to EU-Ukraine security commitments and the conclusions of the Ukraine Peace Summit, hosted by Switzerland over June 15-16. As regards the Middle East, EU Foreign Ministers will consider the possibility of re-launching political talks for ensuring sustainable peace in the region. As part of an informal breakfast meeting with partners in the Western Balkans, participants will exchange views regarding the impact of geopolitical and security developments on this region.
EU ACCESSION – The European Union on Tuesday is expected to launch EU accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, the Belgian presidency has announced. The two countries’ negotiation chapters will be assessed separately. We recall the EU officially launched negotiation talks with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova in mid-December 2023. Earlier this month, the European Commission announced Kyiv and Chișinău have officially met all requirements to open negotiation talks.
INCIDENT – The body of the third young Romanian who drowned on May 31 in Italy was found on Sunday, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent, the Italian authorities are investigating the intervention of response teams in the wake of this tragedy, more specifically how rescue teams were deployed and how emergency call operators responded. We recall that 3 Romanians died in May after the waters of Natisone River rose to dangerous levels in the wake of flash floods.
WAR IN GAZA – Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, is paying an official visit to Washington to hold talks with US officials about developments in Gaza. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said heavy fighting in Rafah against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas are about to end. According to Benjamin Netanyahu, the war won’t end until all Hamas control over Gaza is eliminated. We recall hostilities broke out in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
BLOUSE – June 24 marks the International Day of the Romanian Blouse, a specific item of traditional clothing. Last weekend, Romanian and Moldovan communities in Belgium celebrated this special day. A symposium was held at Château de la Solitude, a heritage building in Auderghem, Brussels. Two debates were also held on this occasion, attended by a large audience, interested to learn more about ethnography and folklore, the process behind the manufacturing of the Romanian blouse and the transition from tradition to modernity. The connection between the Romanian blouse and the celebration of the Sânziene, gentle fairies in Romanian mythology, as well as literature on related folk stories were also topics of debate.
RECORD – The Romanian-Moldovan-German Cultural Center in Nuremberg, Germany, entered the Guinness Book of Records twice for the longest belt manufactured within the space of three months, measuring over 1,600 meters and the heaviest belt, weighing 70 kg. The initiative was launched at the end of February, and since then over a thousand Romanians from all over the world have joined the project and helped manufacture the longest chain belt. Each segment displays the motif of a specific area of Romania, Ionela van Rees-Zota, coordinator of the Cultural Center, told Radio Romania. “We have a representative or an association from almost every county in Romania. We have people from all over the world, from New Zealand to the Republic of Moldova and from Norway to Asia”, Ionela van Rees-Zota said. (VP)
