United News of Bangladesh

Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom said Saturday it will halt gas supplies to Moldova starting on Jan. 1, citing alleged unpaid debt by the European Union candidate country, which has brought in emergency measures as it braces for power cuts. Gazprom said in an online statement that it reserved the right to take further action, including terminating its contract with Moldovagaz, Moldova's main gas operator, in which the Russian company owns a majority stake. The cessation of gas will stop supplies to the Kuciurgan power plant, the country’s largest, which is situated in the separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region. Moldova reacted by accusing Moscow of weaponizing energy supplies. Gazprom supplies the gas-operated Kuciurgan plant, which generates electricity that powers a significant portion of Moldova proper. The plant was privatized in 2004 by Transnistrian officials and later sold to a Russian state-owned company. Moldova, which has a West-leaning central government and has repeatedly complained of Russian interference, doesn’t recognize the privatization. Earlier this month, Moldova's parliament voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector over fears that Russia could leave Moldova without sufficient energy this winter. A special commission was also set up to manage “imminent risks” if Moscow fails to supply gas to the Kuciurgan plant and on Friday approved a series of measures aimed at saving energy. Gazprom has said Moldova owes close to $709 million for past gas supplies, a figure fiercely disputed by the government in the capital Chisinau. Read: Russia's Gazprom stops flow of natural gas to Austria Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean on Saturday condemned the move, saying that his government does not recognize the debt cited by Gazprom, which has been “invalidated by an international audit.” Moldova claims, citing findings by British and Norwegian audit firms, that its debt stands close to $8.6 million, a small fraction of that claimed by Gazprom. Recean added that Chisinau has pushed to diversify its natural gas supplies to reduce dependence on the Kuciurgan plant, and said the government will “carefully analyze legal options, including resorting to international arbitration” to protect Moldova’s national interests. “Our country is prepared to handle any situation that arises following the Kremlin’s decision,” he said. Moldova’s government on Friday announced it would implement a series of measures starting Jan. 1 to reduce energy consumption. These include limiting lighting in public and commercial buildings by at least 30%, and energy-intensive businesses operating during off-peak hours. In late 2022, Moldova suffered major power outages following Russian strikes on neighboring Ukraine, which is interconnected to the Kuciurgan plant. Transnistria, which broke away after a short war in 1992 and is not recognized by most countries, also declared its own state of emergency earlier this month, in case the region does not receive gas supplies. When Russia fully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.5 million people, was entirely dependent on Moscow for natural gas but has since pushed to diversify and expand its energy sources. Read more: Gazprom keen on exploring 5 more gas wells in Bhola; Russia will continue to support Bangladesh: Ambassador In October, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu won a second term in office, and a referendum voted in favor of securing the country’s path toward the EU, in two votes overshadowed by ongoing claims of Russian interference to derail the country’s westward shift in recent years. Russia denies it is meddling in Moldova. Russia cut off most natural gas supplies to Europe in 2022, citing disputes over payment in rubles, a move European leaders described as energy blackmail over their support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. European governments had to scramble to line up alternative supplies at higher prices, much of it liquefied natural gas brought by ship from the U.S. and Qatar.

Romania briefly scrambled military jets and neighboring Moldova temporarily closed its air space Tuesday after authorities in both countries reported mysterious weather balloon-like objects traversing their skies. The incidents occurred at around midday local time and briefly raised concerns in the two Eastern European countries, both which border Ukraine and have been affected by Russia’s war. Romania’s defense ministry said it deployed two jets that are under NATO command to its southeastern skies to seek an aerial object it described as being small with “characteristics similar to a weather balloon.” It had been detected initially by radar systems in Romanian airspace at an altitude of about 11,000 meters (36,000 feet). “The crews of the two aircraft did not confirm the presence of the aerial target, neither visually nor on the onboard radars,” a ministry statement said, adding that the two MiG-21 LanceR aircraft stayed in the vicinity for about 30 minutes before returning to base. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that “the Romanian fighter jets did not find any object, even if it was spotted on the radar … so no threat for the Romanian airspace.” It was unclear whether the two incidents were related, and neither country said where they believed the objects had come from. The events follow a string of comparable incidents this month in the U.S., in which objects detected and shot down by warplanes included a high-altitude Chinese balloon that traversed American airspace. China said it was a weather balloon that had accidentally drifted off course. Read more: China's Xi expresses support for Iran amid Western pressure The incident in Moldova triggered widespread travel disruption and brief panic when authorities temporarily closed the country's airspace over what they later described as an object “similar to a weather balloon” spotted near the northern border with Ukraine. Scores of flights in the country of about 2.6 million people, one of Europe’s poorest, were canceled or rescheduled. Some were diverted to Romania. “Given the weather conditions and the impossibility of monitoring and identifying the object as well as its flight path … the decision was taken to temporarily close the airspace,” Moldova's aviation authority said in a statement. Romania has been a NATO member since 2004 and a European Union member since 2007. Moldova is militarily neutral and thus not a potential NATO member. It's looking to forge closer ties with the west and was granted EU candidate status last June, the same day as Ukraine. On Monday, Moldovan President Maia Sandu accused Russia of plotting to overthrow her country's government and derail it from its EU accession path. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed Sandu’s claims on Tuesday as “absolutely unfounded and unsubstantiated.”

After long negotiations with different stakeholders in Moldova, they have agreed to take Bangladeshi workers. In the first batch 28 Bangladeshi workers were issued Moldovian visa, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told UNB on Saturday. Read: FM attends dinner hosted by Jaishankar in New York They will work in an aluminum window making factory and 40 more are in pipeline, Momen said. Moldova stopped hiring workers from Bangladesh more than a decade ago.

Chisinau, Oct. 7 (Xinhua/UNB) -- Moldova's two-day National Wine Day, aiming to promote wine production and exports, ended here on Sunday. "It is a promising year awaiting us. It is expected a harvest of over 700,000 tonnes of grapes. We want this amount of fruit to find its buyer in the country or abroad," said Georgeta Mincu, Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, at the inauguration on Saturday. Moldova is a country with the biggest density of vineyards in the world, covering 3.8 percent of its territory and 7 percent of its arable land. It is also a country where wine sales are heavily dependent on exports, with the domestic wine consumption accounting for less than 20 percent of total production, while over 80 percent depending on markets abroad, according to official statistics. The Moldovan authorities hold the large-scale wine event every year in the center square of the capital city, awarding outstanding wine producers and quality products, so as to enhance the reputation of Moldova quality wines at home and abroad and promote domestic consumption and exports. This annual event in early October attracts wine producers, wine lovers and tourists from all over the world, including many Chinese citizens, as the Asian country is one of the major importers of Moldovan wines. The 18th edition of the National Wine Day this year gathered 68 wineries. Apart from wine tasting and wine knowledge lectures by professional sommeliers, visitors are also offered gastronomic surprises, as well as the recitals of famous performers and bands. Novelty of this year's edition is the wine tours, which take visitors to famous wineries with tourist facilities across the country. The organizer estimated that the event had attracted more than 100,000 visitors and tourists in two days.