If elected president, former Prime Minister Victor Ponta advised Reuters he’ll ban the export of Ukrainian grain by means of the nation's Black Sea ports to guard native farmers.
Bucharest performs a vital function in Ukrainian exports amid Russia's threats to the Black Sea maritime commerce, delivery round 29 million tones of Ukraine's produce.
"There was a coverage of favoring Ukrainian grain by way of entry to port amenities lately, on the detriment of Romanian grain, and Romanian farmers have been vastly affected by it," Ponta mentioned.
In 2024, Romanian farmers requested the federal government to advocate for import limits on Ukrainian agriculture merchandise, protesting the financial impacts of a free commerce settlement which have sparked worries about uneven competitors and dangers to home manufacturing.
But, the presidential candidate mentioned that he would assist different measures already in place to assist Ukraine, together with weapons transit and coaching for Ukrainian pilots.
He mentioned that Romania can defend neighboring Moldova in case of a Russian assault however couldn’t achieve this for Ukraine or some other nation.
In gentle of President Donald Trump's U-turn in overseas coverage, Ponta mentioned that he backs "radical change" going down within the U.S.
The re-run of Romania's presidential elections is about for Could 8 after the scheduled vote in November was annulled on account of allegations of Russian interference favoring far-right candidate Calin Georgescu.
He was barred from collaborating within the presidential election re-run.
Victor Ponta, 52, served as a Romanian prime minister between 2012-2015, representing the Social Democratic Celebration (PSD). He resigned after public outrage over a lethal nightclub hearth.
An opinion ballot performed by polling institute Verifield confirmed that Ponta has an opportunity to enter the run-off dealing with far-right candidate George Simion.
The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov