September 14, 2025 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 14.09.2025, 18:22

Drone. “The violation of Romanian airspace by Russian drones is yet another unacceptable breach of an EU Member State’s sovereignty,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on social media platform X on Sunday, adding:  “This continued reckless escalation threatens regional security. We stand in solidarity with Romania.” Romania’s foreign minister Oana Ţoiu thanked her Swedish and Czech counterparts Maria Malmer Stenegard and Jan Lipavsky, respectively, for their messages of solidarity, which came after a new provocation from Russia. The Romanian pilots flying F-16 jets received the green light to shoot down a Russian drone that entered Romanian airspace, but decided not to open fire because of possible collateral risks, the defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday. A Shahed drone orbited for 50 minutes in the Romanian airspace before heading for neighbouring Ukraine, where Russia is waging war. The Romanian defence ministry has firmly condemned the irresponsible actions of the Russian Federation, underlining that such incidents pose a threat not only to the safety of Romanian citizens, but also to NATO collective defence. The ministry has assured the population that all necessary measures to guarantee national security are constantly being applied and the defence bodies are ready to respond promptly to any similar situation.

Motion. The Senate is debating a simple no-confidence motion on Monday filed by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, the nationalist opposition, against education minister Daniel David, from the pro-western government formed by the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania. The initiators of the motion say the national education system has been subjected to brutal austerity measures and are criticising the government’s decision to increase the number of teaching hours, merging schools and cutting scholarships. The minister says these measures made it possible to pay staff salaries and scholarships by the end of the year and contributed to Romania’s keeping its country rating. He said in an interview that if the motion passes, he will resign.

Exercise. Over 5,000 soldiers from ten NATO allies will participate, between October 20 and November 13, in the multinational exercise DACIAN FALL 2025 (DAFA 25), held in Romania and Bulgaria. According to a statement from the Ministry of Defence in Bucharest, the soldiers, backed by 1,200 pieces of technical equipment, come from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Planned by the Multinational Division Command South-East (HQ MND-SE) in Bucharest, the exercise will take place simultaneously in the Romanian training ranges in Cincu, Smârdan, Capu Midia, Babadag, Bogată, Alba Iulia, Hanu Conachi, Giarmata, Cârţişoara, as well as in Novo Selo, in Bulgaria. The first convoys of military equipment will enter Romania starting with September 20, crossing the border at Curtici, in the west. The Romanian authorities, together with NATO allies, have adopted measures to limit the impact on local communities and the road travel, planning most movements for night time. NATO exercises, including DACIAN FALL 2025, are defensive in nature and are carried out in full compliance with the international obligations taken by Romania, the Ministry of National Defence also said.

Cycling. The Italian cyclist Cesare Chesini, from MBH Bank Ballan CSB, on Sunday won this year’s edition of the Tour of Romania. Poland’s Radoslaw Fratczak, from Voster ATS Team, won the last stage, held in Bucharest. He was followed by two other Polish cyclists, Patryk Stosz from Voster ATS Team, and Alan Banaszek from ATT Investment. Austria’s Maximilian Schmidbauer from WSA KTM Graz won the first intermediate sprint of the day, the Moldovan-born Romanian cyclist Cristian Răileanu won the following two sprints.

Handball. The Romanian women’s handball champions CSM Bucharest on Sunday evening defeated the Hungarian side Ferencvaros Budapest at home 31-28, in the second leg of Champions League Group B. In their opening group match, CSM lost 27-28 to the Danish side Ikast. On Saturday, CS Gloria Bistriţa defeated DVSC Schaeffler 34-33 in Debrecen, Hungary, in a Group A match. This is their second group win, having earlier defeated the Norwegian side Storhamar. (CM)