Romania's prime minister invited Netanyahu to Bucharest
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has invited his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to Bucharest for a joint meeting of the two countries' governments. He announced this on January 19 on the social network X (former Twitter).
According to him, Romania and Israel have relations of strategic importance.
"We will continue our joint efforts to strengthen peace and security and implement various economic and security projects, which I agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu. We will also work on the preparation of the joint meeting of our governments to be held in Bucharest, to which I have invited the Israeli Prime Minister," Ciolacu said.
The invitation came despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision to arrest Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, on January 9, former ICC head Piotr Hofmanski said that Poland's decision not to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu on an ICC warrant so that the politician could participate in events marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz would severely hurt Warsaw on the international stage. According to Hofmanski, if states refuse to fulfill their obligations to the ICC, it will call into question the very purpose of the court's existence.
In turn, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tzahkna said a day earlier that Estonia , after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, should comply with the decisions of this independent organization, as they are important. The minister noted that the interference of states in ICC decisions at the political level is completely unacceptable.
Prior to that, on November 25, the Financial Times reported that the issuance of an ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant could lead to a split in the Western world. At the same time, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said it was necessary for the G7 countries to take a unified position on the ICC decision.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Galant on November 21. The decision was made because, according to the body, they are criminally responsible as civilian chiefs "for the war crime of deliberately attacking a civilian population."
On the same day, the head of the EU diplomatic service Josep Borrell said at a press conference in Jordan that the EU considers the issued warrants "binding". In turn, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant would in no way help end the conflict in the Middle East.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when Hamas subjected Israel's territory to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, as well as invaded the border areas in the south of the country and seized hostages. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip.
