September 19, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 19.09.2023, 20:07

UN The Romanian president Klaus Iohannis
takes part in the UN General Assembly in New York. On Wednesday Iohannis is
expected to have a national intervention within the session’s general debates. On
Tuesday, Romania’s Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu participated in the third
meeting of the trilateral format EU – Saudi Arabia – the Arab League staged
jointly with Egypt and Jordan on the sidelines of the 78th session
of the UN General Assembly. According to a communiqué of the Foreign Ministry
in Bucharest, the format’s main objective is to reignite the Middle East peace
process and to protect the two-state solution, Israel and Palestine. The head
of the Romanian diplomacy has voiced her full support for this trilateral
format and underlined the need for the creation of a credible political horizon
and the implementation of measures aimed at increasing trust, which could lead
to overcoming the deadlock in the negotiations. The Romanian Foreign Minister
has underlined the importance of maintaining the status quo of the Holy Places
in Jerusalem with the special role of custodian played by Jordan.

GAS A branch
of the Romanian company Transgaz has started operating the gas transport system
in the neighboring Republic of Moldova, including in Transdniester. Analysts in
Chisinau say this translates as reducing the energy dependency on the Russian
Federation. The local company Moldovagaz, controlled by the Russian giant
Gazprom, so far had the monopoly over gas deliveries and transportation in that
country and had opposed the separation of these two services, as stipulated by the
Moldovan and European legislation. Transgaz director Ion Sterian has told Radio
Chisinau that this became possible after Romania had invested 430 million euros
in the gas transport network. Sterian has given assurances that in the
following five years new investments will be made in streamlining the gas
networks and in connecting the households, which do not have access to the
aforementioned network at present.

FESTIVAL The George Enescu International Music Festival
in Bucharest has reached its final week. Until Sunday, the public are invited
to attend free of charge classical music concerts held in the Festival Square
near the Romanian Athenaeum, where celebrated orchestras from Romania and the
Republic of Moldova will accompany famous soloists and instrumentalists. The
Radio Romania Big Band conducted by Simona Strungaru, will give a concert on
Friday. On Sunday, the last performance in the Festival will be given by the
Camerata Regală orchestra with the percussionist Zoli Toth.

GRAINS Bulgarian
farmers carry on protests against resuming the imports of Ukrainian grains,
accepted by the Bulgarian government after the European Commission decided not
to extend the ban on such imports. In turn, Bucharest continues to allow the
transit of Ukrainian grains, but has introduced a one-month import restrictions
until Kyiv comes up with a plan for its exports. The measure persuaded Romanian
farmers to give up their protests. Poland, Slovakia and Hungary unilaterally
banned imports of Ukrainian grain, prompting Kyiv to complain against them at
the World Trade Organisation.

(bill)