According to Reuters, South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace said on Wednesday it won a 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) order from Romania to supply self-propelled howitzers. The deal is Romania's largest arms acquisition deal in seven years and includes 54 K9 howitzers, ammunition and 36 K10 resupply vehicles, South Korea's largest defence company by revenue said. The contract lasts until July 2029, Hanwha Aerospace said. The South Korean arms procurement agency, Defense Acquisition Program Administration, confirmed the details of the deal in a separate statement. Hanwha Aerospace shares rose more than 5% to a record high in early morning trade, versus a 0.1% drop in the wider market. Overseas orders for Hanwha have jumped since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as countries sought to bolster their arms with quick, reliable supply, analysts said. Hanwha's land defence business has seen its order backlog swell to about 30 trillion won at the end of March this year from 5.1 trillion won at end-2021. Analysts said South Korean defence firms are able to ship arms quickly with lower costs and provide continual maintenance partly due to the economy of scale from supplying the standing armed forces in South Korea, which is still technically at war with North Korea. Hanwha now holds more than 50% share of the global market for howitzer exports, according to data by NH Investment & Securities. "Given that the end of a war does not mean an end to the growth of defence spending, and that (U.S. presidential candidate Donald) Trump explicitly demanded that NATO and other European countries increase their share of defence costs, opportunities are expected to expand" for South Korean defence firms, said Meritz Securities analyst Lee Ji-ho in a note on Tuesday.
If Russian president Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine in 2022, is not stopped, "he will certainly go to Moldova and perhaps further, to Romania," French president Emmanuel Macron warned in an interview with several French newspapers quoted by Le Monde. The statement came after the...
The government of Romania will continue to cap the price for "a large part of the electricity purchased by the Republic of Moldova" from domestic producers in Romania, acting president Ilie Bolojan declared during a press conference held in Chisinau on February 28 with counterpart Maia Sandu,
A rally estimated at tens of thousands of participants from all over the country was organized by the far-right party AUR and its smaller newly emerged partner POT in favor of pro-Russian isolationist and former presidential candidate Calin Georgescu in Bucharest on March 1. The rally was organized by AUR, the party of far-right politician […]
Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu mentioned the option of broadening the ruling coalition with the reformist Save Romania Union (USR) after the latter avoided supporting the opposition's no-confidence motion against the executive while still criticizing the prime minister. PM Ciolacu implied he might step down after thorough consultations with his party but insisted that the […]
The Prosecutor General's Office is in possession of evidence about a plot organised by former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu and a group of former French Foreign Legion fighters coordinated by Horațiu Potra, still active under contracts with African states, who immediately after the annulment of the presidential elections on December 6, 2024, were planning to […]
Romania opposes the free trade agreement with the countries of the Mercosur bloc, considering that it will bring significant harm to the agri-food sector and Romanian farmers, said agriculture minister Florin Barbu. "Romanian farmers will be affected. I have asked the Commissioner [Christophe Hansen, European Commissioner for Agriculture] to give agriculture a three-year transition period […]
