January 15, 2026 UPDATE
The latest news from RRI
Newsroom, 15.01.2026, 20:00
Culture Day – Romanians celebrated the National Culture Day on Thursday, an event that got Parliament approval in 2010. January 15 is also the birthday of Romania’s national poet, Mihai Eminescu, who was also considered the last major representative of the European Romanticism. All the Romanian Cultural Institute branches on Thursday hosted various events dedicated to this special day. In turn, all the channels of the Romanian society have adjusted their program to mark the National Culture Day. “Culture was and remains the space in which the great ideas of society are transformed into sustainable landmarks”, the Romanian President Nicuşor Dan said in his address on the National Culture Day.
Budget – The Romanian government is currently preparing the state budget for 2026, and in this context, the Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan is holding talks with his cabinet ministers. On Thursday, the ministers of Development, Culture, European Projects, Education and National Defense were present at the working meetings to analyze the budget situation. On Wednesday, the head of the executive met with the ministers of Agriculture, Health, Interior, Justice and Environment. The calculations related to the budget allocations will also take into account the spending cuts imposed through the administration reform, the recently published bill for which Ilie Bolojan intends to once again assume the executive’s responsibility in Parliament. This is the option that would ensure a quick adoption before the approval of the draft budget for this year, with a deficit target of up to 6.5% of the Gross Domestic Product, a significant decrease compared to 2025, for which the deficit target and estimates are 8.4% of the Gross Domestic Product.
Greenland – The US position on acquiring Greenland remains inflexible after the talks held in Washington yesterday between the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Denmark and Greenland. The Danish Foreign Minister has described the talks as constructive but has also mentioned fundamental disagreements on the future of this arctic island. President Trump says there’s nothing that Denmark can do about it, if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland. The US had earlier evoked two alternatives for acquiring Greenland, buying the island or taking it by the use of the military. Before the talks in Washington, Denmark announced its intention to beef up its military presence in Greenland, while Germany and Sweden said they would dispatch small military missions to the island, which has now a strategic position mainly because of the opening of Northern maritime routes due to the global warming. The island is also rich in strategic resources, which remain still inaccessible due to the harsh climate and the lack of infrastructure.
Ambassadors – The Republic of Moldova remains an essential foreign policy priority for Romania, President Nicuşor Dan said in Bucharest on Thursday. He underlined that Romania would support EU enlargement, ‘with an emphasis on the accession of the Republic of Moldova’. Present at the annual meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Romania, the head of state also said that Romania would strengthen its participation in NATO policies and the Strategic Partnership with the United States would continue to be a fundamental line of action of foreign policy in 2026. In his opinion, transatlantic collaboration will have as defining lines: defense, energy security, rare raw materials and border technologies. He mentioned that Romania will host, in 2026, in collaboration with Polish partners, the Bucharest B 9 Summit, will accelerate the sustained efforts to create the security hub in the Black Sea and will continue to contribute to Europe’s energy security in the future, as a supplier and transit route. At the same time, the president appreciated that Romania’s accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was also a strategic objective. On the other hand, Nicușor Dan showed that Romania would continue to play an active role in supporting global stability, noting in this regard that ‘diplomatic solutions based on international law’ will be encouraged in the Middle East.
Iran – The US President Donald Trump said he had been told that the number of deaths in Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protests that have escalated nationwide is declining and that he believes there are currently no plans for large-scale executions, even though tensions between Tehran and Washington remain high, Reuters, CNN and Sky News reported. He added that he would “watch and see” in relation to the threat of US military action. Trump has repeatedly spoken in recent days about helping the Iranian people in the context of the crackdown on protests that, according to the Iran Human Rights organization, have led to the death of at least 3,400 people and the arrest of more than 10,000. But in a surprise announcement made at the White House, Trump said he had received assurances from “very important sources on the other side” that Tehran had stopped using lethal force against protesters and that the executions would not take place. Iran closed its airspace to almost all flights without any explanations on Thursday morning, and airlines said they would avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace ‘until further notice.’ Tehran has threatened to attack US bases and ships in the region, as well as Israel, if it is bombed. The protests initially erupted on December 28, 2025, over an economic crisis, but quickly took on a political character. (LS)
