VISIT – Romanian president Klaus Iohannis is today meeting Romanian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, USA. Iohannis earlier met members of the Romanian community on the West Coast and told them that Romania is in a complicated situation created by the war in neighboring Ukraine, but the country is doing well and the economy is growing. According to Iohannis, Romania has received nearly 2 million and a half refugees from that country and has eased Ukraine’s grain exports. 60% of Ukraine’s grain exports have so far been done via Romania and we are making efforts to increase this quantity” – Iohannis said. He said the almost 450 thousand Romanians who are living in the USA are making an extraordinarily important bridge between the two countries. The community of Romanians in the USA is the fifth largest after those from Italy, Britain and Germany. We recall that on Tuesday and Wednesday Iohannis headed the Romanian delegation attending the UN General Assembly.
MANDATE – Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has handed over the mandate of the presidency of Community of Democracies to the Foreign Minister of Canada, Melanie Joly during a ceremony held in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Aurescu reviewed the highlights of the three-year mandate of the Romanian presidency adding that during these three years, democracies, human and international rights faced a lot of challenges, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. According to him, under the Romanian presidency and with his support, a group of member states on February 24th endorsed a declaration voicing their support for the democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally-recognized borders. At the same time the signatory countries have firmly condemned the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine and have unequivocally voiced their support for the Ukrainian people in its democratic aspirations.
WAR – Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Russians to resist the partial military mobilisation announced by president Putin. According to Zelensky, 55 thousand Russian troops have been killed in this war. „Want more? No? Then protest, fight back, run away or surrender to the Ukrainian army”, Zelensky says in a video message in Russian language. He has accused the Russian citizens they are accomplices to the crimes their troops are committing against the Ukrainians. Clashes between the two armies have carried on both in the south and eastern Ukraine. In another development, four regions in southern and eastern Ukraine, under Moscow’s total and partial control, are to vote in a referendum to join Russia until Tuesday. The polls, hastily organised after being announced this week have been widely condemned in the west as illegitimate.
REFUGEES – Sources with the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Border Police have announced that 82,152 persons entered Romania on Thursday, of whom 10,594 are Ukrainian nationals, 5.4% as compared to the previous day. According to the same sources since February 10 this year, two weeks before the Russian invasion, 2,388,009 Ukrainians have entered Romania.
(Radio Romania International)
