January 14, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 14.01.2023, 18:59

Culture Day. On Friday, President Klaus Iohannis decorated artists,
personalities and important cultural institutions on the occasion of the
National Culture Day, marked annually on January 15. The distinctions were
awarded as a sign of appreciation for the work done and the major impact on the
cultural space in the country and abroad. Among those decorated are the
well-known film critic Irina Margareta Nistor, the Peles National Museum, the
Hungarian State Theater in Timisoara (west), the National Theater in Târgu
Mureş (center) and the Moldova Philharmonic in Iași (east). In the last two
centuries, the cultural elites have inspired Romanian society to step on the
road to Western modernization and democratization – said President Klaus
Iohannis, who added that Romanians are proud of personalities whose works have
enriched national and universal heritage and spirituality.

NATO. NATO is moving to Romania some of the AWACS radar jets,
currently stationed in Germany, to watch more closely the war started by Russia
in Ukraine. The planes are scheduled to land on Tuesday at the Otopeni military
base, near Bucharest. NATO and the Ministry of Defense announced that they will
carry out surveillance flights
exclusively on the territory of the Alliance, will strengthen the presence of
allied forces in the Black Sea region, but they will also monitor Russian
military activity. AWACS aircraft can fly at altitudes of 12,000 meters and
detect enemy aircraft, ships or ground vehicles from 400 kilometers away. They
can transmit information to all NATO combat aircraft, which means they can
theoretically be used as flying command posts.

Schengen. The Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, Notis
Mitarachi, has recently presented in Austria, an initiative to support the
accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, and will visit the two
countries next week – according to a press
release from the Greek line ministry. Notis Mitarachi met in Vienna with the
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and the Minister of the Interior, Gerhard
Karner. In Athens’ view, the extension of Schengen through the accession of
Romania and Bulgaria will be directly beneficial for Greece, as it will be
connected by road with other EU member states. At the same time, Greece claims that
the enlargement of the Schengen area will help boost economic activities. The
Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum recalls that, while Croatia’s
application for Schengen accession was accepted in the JHA Council in Brussels,
on December 8 last year, Romania and Bulgaria were faced with the opposition of
Austria and the Netherlands, although they successfully completed the
evaluation procedures for joining the free movement area as early as 2011.

Ukraine. Turkey wants to
see localized cessations of the conflict in Ukraine because it cannot hope for
a more comprehensive peace deal at this stage, Ibrahim Kalin, a close adviser
to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Saturday. Neither Russia nor Ukraine
is in a position to win militarily, Kalin estimated, declaring himself
convinced that in the end, they will have to negotiate to reach an acceptable
solution for both sides. Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, on
February 24, Turkey, which maintains good relations with both countries,
offered to broker the end of the war. It mediated the agreement signed last
summer on Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea and the Bosphorus and the
facilitation of prisoner of war exchanges. In another move, Great Britain has announced
that it will send a dozen tanks to Ukraine. Kyiv hopes that the US, France and
Germany will follow the British example. Russian diplomats said on Saturday
that sending British tanks to Ukraine, as announced by London, will only ‘intensify’ the
fighting and it’s very unlikely to change the situation on the front line.

Refugees. More than 3 million Ukrainian citizens have crossed the
border to Romania since the outbreak of the war in the neighboring country in
February last year. Also, over 100,000 have temporarily settled in Romania, and
4,000 have applied for asylum – according to a report made public in the
presence of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă. At Government level, six working
groups were set up by fields of activity, which, together with the UN partners
and civil society, allowed a good management of the situation arising from the
Russian aggression. At the same time, they facilitated the accommodation of the
Ukrainians in a very short time. To manage the humanitarian crisis, so far, the
Romanian Government has allocated 565 million euros, of which 200 million euros
came from international partners. The aid materialized in free transport, food,
clothing, shelter, long-term accommodation, free medical and social
interventions and services, access to the labor market and schools.

Covid-19. China has
recorded about 60,000 deaths from COVID-19 in just over a month, health
authorities reported, providing the first toll since restrictions were eased in
early December. The Chinese government stopped reporting infections and deaths
early last month after suddenly revoking anti-virus controls. The World Health
Organization and some governments have asked Beijing to provide more detailed
information about the situation and the virus. In the context of the worrying
increase in cases in this country, since the beginning of the year, the EU has
encouraged member states to ask all travelers coming from the Asian country to
present a negative test for COVID-19. China is the place where the SARS-CoV-2
pandemic started approximately three years ago.

Execution. The execution,
in Iran, on Saturday morning, of Alireza Akbari, who held dual Iranian and
British citizenship, is a barbaric act that will not stand unchallenged,
said the Foreign Minister of the United
Kingdom, James Cleverly. In turn, the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
denounced on Twitter the callous and cowardly conviction. The
French authorities summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires to Paris, also warning
that Tehran’s repeated violations of international law cannot stand
unchallenged, and the US condemned the execution, calling it
horrific. Former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Alireza Akbari
(61) was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the United Kingdom, a
charge he denied. Britain asked Iran to stop the execution and release him
immediately, but Alireza Akbari was hanged. Iran does not recognize dual
citizenship for its citizens. (MI)