Morning headlines – February 8th 2022

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: In the last 24 hours, more than 10.000 people got vaccinated. Totally, more than 8,08 million people got the vaccine, with more than 8 getting both doses and 2,44 of them getting the third dose. (Press release)
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, there were recorded 16.958 SARS CoV-2 cases, 81 deaths, and in ICU there are now 1.102 people hospitalized. (Press release)

Global political and military events

• The Macron-Putin discussions lasted six hours, the two officials asked for the continuation of dialogue. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, asked on Monday evening for the continuation of the NATO-Russia dialogue to reach an agreement on the security architecture in Europe and solving the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Macron asked the preservation of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine’s sovereignty, while Putin said it is unacceptable for Ukraine to join NATO. (Mediafax)
• Macron is visiting Ukraine. Following the meeting with Putin on Monday, Emmanuel Macron goes to Ukraine on Tuesday to have talks in Kiev with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. (RRA)
• Biden warns Russia that there will be `no Nord Stream 2` is it invades Ukraine. The statement was made on Monday evening, during the meeting with the German chancellor Olaf Sholz. (Mediafax)
• The EU thinks this is the most dangerous moment for Europe. Europe is dealing with the `most dangerous moment` in terms of security since the end of the Cold War, said, on Monday, in Washington, Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the EU on Foreign Affairs, underlining that there is a `possible` diplomatic solution for the conflict with Russia. The statement was made on the occasion of the meeting he has with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. (Mediafax)
• More NATO troops in Poland and the Baltic States. The Great Britain sends 350 troops to Poland, and Germany sends the same number to Lithuania. (Aleph News)
• Ukraine starts large scale military drills. The Ukrainian defence minister, Alexey Reznikov, announced on Monday evening that the armed forces are developing, between 10^th and 20^th of February, huge military drills using the received equipment, among them also being the Bayraktar drones and the antitank missile systems Javelin and NLAW.(Tass)
• Bosnian Serbs are voting the establishment of a separate justice system. The Bosnian Serbs Parliament from Bosnia and Herzegovina is voting, on Tuesday, the establishment of a justice system specific to the entity. (Mediafax)

Romania's defense and security

• Senate committees report on electronic communications project. The Senate's Legal, Communications and Economic Committees are meeting on Tuesday in a joint session to draft a report on the electronic communications project initiated by the government and adopted in the Chamber of Deputies. Requesting services to access messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, has sparked much discussion. (Agerpres)