Morning headlines – January 11th 2022

Coronavirus and vaccines

• Vaccination in Romania: In the last 24 hours, more than 25.000 people got vaccinated. Totally, more than 7,99 million people got the vaccine, with more than 7,88 getting both doses and 2,14 of them getting the third dose.
• Coronavirus in Romania: In the last 24 hours, there were recorded 4.104 new SARS CoV-2 cases, 16 deaths, and in ICU there are now 414 people hospitalized.

Global political and military events

• The US-Russia negotiations ended with no significant progresses. The discussions between the Russian and American diplomats on Putin’s war threats and the troops’ dislocation at the border with Ukraine took place on Monday, in Geneve, but with no significant results. The delegations of the two countries were led by the deputy state secretary Wendy Sherman and the deputy Russian foreign affairs minister, Sergey Riyabkov, and the discussions lasted 8 hours. The United States rejected Russia’s security proposals saying that NATO’s open doors policy is still available, meanwhile Russia warned the US to not underestimate the risk of a confrontation. (Reuters)
• NATO conferences on Ukraine. After Monday’s summit between the US and Russia representatives it follows the NATO-Ukraine commission meeting, on January 11th, and the NATO-Russia Council, on January 12th, which will take place in Brussels. (AP)
• Kazakhstan has a new prime-minister. Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, appointed, on Tuesday, Alikhan Smailov as the new prime-minister. Almost 9.000 people were arrested in Kazakhstan since the protests started. 18 policemen and military and 26 protesters were killed in last week’s conflicts. (Aleph News)
• The European Parliament’s president died. The European Parliament president, David Sassoli, aged 65, died on Tuesday in a hospital from Italy, due to serious complications following a immunity system dysfunction. (AFP)
• North Korea is launching a second suspect missile in just one week. North Korea launched a second missile on Tuesday morning, most likely a ballistic missile, which landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. Pyongyang media reported on Thursday that the armed forces had launched a hypersonic missile. (AP)

Romania's defense and security

• Romania is worried about Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. Bogdan Aurescu, Romania's foreign minister, said that "there is a legitimate concern within the allied countries and also Romania regarding the Russian forces’ dislocation near Ukraine, around the Black Sea region, which is unprovoked and unjustified. We also see a number of conditions that have been set by Russia, which tend to change the parameters of the European security architecture".
• Romgaz explains why it did not buy ExxonMobil shares. The signing of the sale-purchase contract for ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited shares has not yet taken place, as certain implementation details still need to be clarified, according to Romgaz representatives. The Extraordinary General Meeting of Romgaz Shareholders approved on December 10 the takeover of ExxonMobil's 50% stake in the Neptun Deep deep gas project. (Press release)