March 6, 2022

French defence minister Florence Parly meets French troops deployed to Romania to beef up NATO eastern flank defence./ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Republic of Moldova to discuss refugee crisis.

România Internațional, 06.03.2022, 13:46

NATO. President Klaus Iohannis and
prime minister Nicolae Ciucă are today visiting the 57th Air Base in
Mihail Kogălniceanu, in the south-east. According to the government website,
joining them are defence minister Vasile Dîncu and the Chief of Defence Staff,
General Daniel Petrescu, as well as the French defence minister Florence Parly,
who is meeting the French troops deployed by her country to Romania. The French
battalion is the first land element of the NATO Response Force to arrive in Romania
as part of the measures adopted by NATO to consolidate the defence of its
eastern flank following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They joined American,
Italian and German military already stationed here.

Moldova.
The prime minister of the Republic of Moldova Natalia
Gavriliţa has urged the United States for additional humanitarian assistance to
her country to help it cope with the influx of refugees from Ukraine. She told
visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that 120,000 of the 230,000
people who have crossed the border into Moldova from Ukraine have stayed, which
is a very large number for a small country of 2.6 million like Moldova. Blinken
promised full support from the United States and said he admired the
generosity, the hospitality and the willingness shown by Moldovans. During his
trip to Poland on Saturday, Blinken said the Biden administration asked
Congress to approve humanitarian support of 2.75 billion dollars for the
refugees and the neighbouring countries where they are fleeing, Romania,
Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

Refugees.
More
than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed into neighbouring countries
in 10 days – the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II,
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo
Grandi said on Twitter. Poland has seen the highest influx of refugees. The
World Health Organisation has decried Russia’s repeated attacks on medical
facilities in Ukraine, which is in breach of the principle of medical
neutrality and international humanitarian law.

Covid-19.
Romania reported some 3,000 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, as well
as 30 related fatalities, including one from an earlier date. Romanian
president Klaus Iohannis said on Friday that Romania will not extend the state
of epidemiological alert beyond 8th March. Since the start of the pandemic, Romania has recorded over 2.7 million
Covid cases and over 63 thousand deaths. Romania has the second lowest
vaccination rate in the European Union, after Bulgaria.

Education.
More than 50 Romanian and foreign education institutions are presenting their
education programmes at an education fair held today in Constanţa, in the south-east, and which opened on Saturday in Bucharest.
According to organisers, the favourite study destinations for young Romanians
are The Netherlands, followed by the UK, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Spain,
while the top areas of study are IT, engineering, European studies, economics,
advertising, aerospace engineering and law. The fair is also addressed to
secondary school and high school pupils, with demand for this area seeing a 20%
boost during the pandemic. The favourite destinations for pre-university
education are the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

Eurovision.
The singer WRS is representing Romania at this year’s
Eurovision Song Contest with a song called Llamame. He won the national
competition held by the public TV station in Bucharest. Eurovision 2022 will be
hosted by Turin, in Italy, with the semifinals taking place on 10th
and 12th May and the final on the 14th. Romania’s best
Eurovision performance was the third place twice, in 2005 in Kyiv and in 2010
in Oslo. The TV show to choose Romania’s entry also featured the Ukrainian
singer Jamala, who won the 2016 edition and who is now a refugee. The European
Broadcasting Union has announced that no Russian act will participate in this
year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Moldova’s entry this year is a song from the band
Zdob şi Zdub about the train from Bucharest to Chişinău, the capital of the
majority Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova, a metaphor for the shared
history and the culture of the two nations. (CM)