October 23, 2022

Click here for a roundup of local and world news

Newsroom, 23.10.2022, 14:00

MILITARY The
first shipment of French military equipment to join the NATO battle group deployed
to Cincu, in central Romania, reaches the country on Sunday, the defence
ministry announced. A second convoy, comprising a Leclerc main battle tank
company, is set to arrive in November. The NATO Battle Group Forward Presence
in Romania (BGFP) was created in May by transforming the Allied multinational
elements of the NATO Response Force deployed to our country. Upon France’s
proposal to take over the framework-nation role, the French battalion deployed
to Romania, considered the Spearhead of the Very High Readiness Joint Task
Force (VJTF), built up the BGFP on our national territory by integrating, on
rotational basis, Belgian and Dutch troops. BGFP contributes to the increase of
the Romanian military cooperation with France and, implicitly, to the consolidation
of the Euro-Atlantic space security on the Eastern Flank. Cooperation with the
strategic partners and the deployment of relevant combat structures on national
territory contribute to the increase of defence and deterrence capacity in the
context of the Ukraine war and the Black Sea region crisis, the defence
ministry explains.

BORDER Romania’s
border police announced that over 97,000 people entered Romania on Saturday, of
whom more than 9,500 were Ukrainian nationals, up 15.6% since the previous day.
According to current data, over 2.6 million Ukrainian citizens have entered
Romania since February 10, and nearly 4,400 of them have applied for asylum
here.

NRRP Romania is
set to receive EUR 2.6 bln in the coming days under the National Recovery and
Resilience Plan, to be channelled into the country’s economic recovery. The
funds are transferred after the European Commission authorised the payment of
the first instalments of the non-reimbursable aid and loan components. Romania submitted
the first payment request in May, after meeting the targets and benchmarks for
the 4th quarter of 2021. In September, the European Commission’s assessment of
these targets was approved and submitted to the Economic and Financial
Committee, which also approved it. The Romanian minister for investment and
European projects Marcel Boloş believes this is just the beginning of a long
road, which, if successfully completed, will translate into investments in
motorways, railways, schools and hospitals. The next payment request will
amount to EUR 3.2 bln, for which over 50 targets will have to be met, related
to the first half of this year. Romania may access a total of nearly EUR 30 bln
under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, of which it has already
received 2 pre-financing instalments amounting to a rough EUR 3.8 bln.

COAL Romania has
increased its coal output to mitigate the energy crunch. The amounts extracted
in the first 8 months of the year went up 1.7% and imports rose by 13.5%, the
National Statistics Institute reports. The National Strategy and Forecast
Commission estimates for this year a coal output 10% higher than in 2021 and a
2.8% rise in imports. For 2023, the Commission forecasts an 8% increase in
output.

CHINA The Chinese
president Xi Jinping was re-elected on Sunday as leader of the ruling Communist
Party, thus becoming China’s strongest leader since Mao Zedong, the founder of
the Chinese communist regime, international news agencies report. Xi Jinping was
appointed for a 3rd five-year term in office by a largely reshuffled Central
Committee, and is very likely to be re-elected president as well in March. ‘China cannot develop without the world, and the world also
needs China,’ he said, and praised what he called the two miracles achieved
by his country-rapid economic development and long-term social stability. Xi
Jinping appointed many of his close allies in the Standing Committee, a 7-member
group in power in China. The all-powerful Politburo includes no women among its
members for the first time in 25 years.

HANDBALL The
Romanian women’s handball champions, Rapid Bucharest, play at home today
against Storhamar, of Norway, in a Champions’ League Group B match. Rapid is
3rd in the ranking, after the Hungarian side Gyor and the French side Metz. On Saturday, vice-champions CSM Bucharest
lost their first game in the group, away from home, to defending champions
Vipers Kristiansand of Norway, 35-29. CSM ranks 3rd in Group A, after the
German side Bietigheim and Kristiansand. (AMP)