August 7, 2021

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 07.08.2021, 13:55

Covid-19. Romania added France and
Iceland to the red list of country with high epidemiological risk, while Turkey
and Montenegro were moved to the yellow list from Sunday. Travellers to Romania
from yellow list countries will not be asked to isolate if they are fully
vaccinated or present a negative PCR test result no older than 72 hours. Arrivals
from red list countries are asked to isolate unless they are vaccinated, with
the exception of children under 3 and those aged between 3 and 16 if they
present a negative Covid test result. On Saturday, Romania reported 255 new
Covid cases and 8 related-fatalities.

Moldova. The prime minister and the
new government of the Republic of Moldova were sworn in on Friday before the
country’s pro-European president Maia Sandu after receiving Parliament’s vote
of investiture. Maia Sandu said she placed all her trust in the professionalism
and abilities of the cabinet led by Natalia Gavriliţă, whom she assured of all
her support. The governing programme featured priorities in a number of areas,
the fight against corruption and protecting public interest. Internationally,
the new government wants to continue efforts to secure Moldova’s accession to
the European Union. The political class in Bucharest gave assurances that it
will continue to work with the neighbouring, majority-Romanian speaking state.

Attack. The Romanian foreign
minister Bogdan Aurescu welcomed Friday’s joint declaration from the G7 foreign
ministers and the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell with respect to the
recent drone attack on the Mercer Street oil tanker off the coast of Oman. Two crew
members were killed, a Romanian and a Briton. The signatories of the deceleration
condemned the attack, which they say was deliberate, targeted and a violation
of international law. They also say that Iran threatens global peace and
security and that all available information points to Iran as being behind the
attack. Tehran denies any involvement.

Aid. Two Romanian Air
Force aircraft will provide assistance to North Macedonia, which has been
battling forest fires for several days. According to the Romanian defence
ministry, 15 crew members are operating the two planes, a C-27 J Spartan
aircraft reconfigured for fire-fighting and a C-Hercules aircraft providing
logistical support. This is the second international mission involving these
Romanian planes, after July 2018 in Greece.

Fire. The Romanian foreign
ministry is advising Romanian citizens travelling to Greece, which is popular
tourist destination for many, to find out in advance about the weather situation in that
country, where temperatures of up to 46 degrees Celsius were forecast for
Saturday. Homes and vegetation burnt and thousands were evacuated in Greece,
which has been battling with wildfire. Several storage facilities and factories
long the motorway between Athens and Thessaloniki caught fire and explosions
occurred. International aid arrived after another night of fires ripping
through northern Athens, Evia island and the Peloponnese. 112 Romanian
firefighters and 23 special vehicles were deployed to Greece for ten days to
take part in efforts to put out the fires. They are coordinated by their Greek
counterparts, and firefighters from France, Switzerland, Cyprus and Sweden are
also arriving.

Afghanistan. The UK has advised its citizen
to immediately leave Afghanistan due to the worsening security situation. After
the pull out of US-led foreign troops from Afghanistan after almost two
decades, the resurgent Taliban Islamists launched a new major offensive. They seized
vast rural territories, border crossing points and provincial capital and
assassinated the spokesman of the government in Kabul. Romania also withdrew from Afghanistan in June. Of its 32,000 soldiers who took
parts in various missions there, 27 were killed and over 200 wounded. (CM)