August 26, 2020 UPDATE
A news update
Newsroom, 26.08.2020, 20:00
Elections — The Bucharest Constituency Electoral Bureau validated 18 candidacies to the position of general mayor at the local elections due on September 27. According to the Municipal Electoral Bureau, 22 lists of candidates have also been registered, proposed by political parties or alliances, by electoral alliances as well as independent candidacies for the general council and the councils of the capital’s 6 sectors. Friday will see the start of the election campaign which will come to an end of September 26, 24 hours ahead of the elections. The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday called on the government to start an information campaign regarding the procedures that need to be observed during the election campaign and on the day of the local elections in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. There is no zero risk scenario said the president, but if all these measures are understood, assumed and applied by both organizers and citizens, risks can be reduced to a minimum.
Corona Ro — 1,256 new infections with SARS CoV-2 were reported in the last 24 hours in Romania, taking the total number of infections to some 81,600, the Strategic Communication Group informs. Over 3,400 people have been killed by the virus so far, while the number of patients in intensive care stands at 500. According to the latest report of the National Center for Surveillance and Control of Communicable Diseases, the number of infections dropped slightly over August 17-23 compared to previous weeks, but it remains high compared to the March-June period.
MAE – The EU member states should continue to show solidarity with Greece and Cyrus in the Eastern Mediterranean crisis, said the Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu on Wednesday in a Twitter post one day before the informal meeting of the EU members’ foreign ministers to be hosted in Berlin on Thursday and Friday. He added that the EU should fully encourage a peaceful dialogue between the two sides with a view to solving and deescalating the conflict, in line with the international law. According to a Romanian Foreign Ministry communiqué quoted by AGERPRES news agency the ministers will also talk in Berlin about the relations between the EU and Turkey in the context of continued tension in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Meeting – Romanias Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca on Wednesday had a bilateral meeting with his German counterpart, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, on the sidelines of the EU Defense Ministers meeting, held in Berlin. Talks focused on the development of defense cooperation with NATO, the EU and the UN. Minister Ciuca expressed Romanias readiness to support the German presidency of the EU Council and highlighted the importance of consolidating cooperation between NATO and the European Union. The two officials also tackled a series of elements on NATOs defense and deterrence capabilities, as well as the security context in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Black Sea. The two ministers also agreed on intensifying bilateral cooperation in the field of defense. The agenda of the meeting in Berlin includes debates on the EUs operational commitments, developing cooperation with partners, the Strategic Compass – the EUs upcoming instrument in the field of security and defense, and debates on the concept of European Defense and Security Culture post-COVID.
Missions — The Royal Canadian Air Force Detachment, which will conduct enhanced Air Policing missions alongside military of the Romanian Air force under NATO command, is currently being dispatched to the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in southeastern Romania, according to AGERPRES news agency. Romanian and Canadian soldiers will undertake, from September to December, missions with such aircraft as CF-188 Hornet, F-16 Fighting Falcon and MiG-21 LanceR. The Canadian detachment is made up of almost 145 pilots and technical staff and 6 CF-188 Hornet aircraft. This is the 4th rotation of the Royal Canadian Air Force Detachment in Mihail Kogalniceanu after the missions in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Canadian military also participated in a mission in Romania, in Câmpia Turzii, in 2014. The joint air policing missions contribute to the development of the reaction and deterrence capabilities as well as to the consolidating inter-operability among the Romanian and Canadian Air Forces, shows the Romanian Defense Ministry.
Tennis — The pair made up of the Romanian Horia Tecău and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer on Wednesday lost in two sets to the American pair Steve Johnson / Austin Krajicek in the quarter finals of the doubles competitions of the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati hosted this year by the Flushing Meadows Park in New York. The Romanian-Dutch pair had defeated on Monday the pair Raven Klaasen (South Africa)/Oliver Marach (Austria). (translation and update by L. Simion)
