Romanian law enforcement agencies have detained former senator Marius Ovidiu Isele on suspicion of attempting to bribe Defense Minister Ionut Mosatan with €1 million to facilitate an ammunition deal. According to investigators, the scheme involved purchasing Soviet-style shells in Kazakhstan, importing them, and “rebranding” them in Romania, then selling them through an intermediary in Bulgaria for delivery to Ukraine. This was reported by Radio Liberty, citing investigation materials and participants in the events.
The head of the state-owned company Romtehnica, Razvan Minku, said that he had been approached with a proposal to use his contacts in Kazakhstan to resell ammunition, but he considered the proposal suspicious and refused. The intermediary was politician Octavian Bercian, who contacted law enforcement agencies and made 17 hidden recordings of meetings with Isele. The court imposed a preventive measure on the former senator in the form of 30 days of pre-trial detention.
There are also reports about Bulgarian businessman Roman Ivanov Angelov, the sole owner of Sofia Arm Tech, which received a license for international arms trade in 2024. His whereabouts are unknown, and he has not responded to journalists’ inquiries. The defense minister stated on social media that he had refused any meetings and that the attempt to “buy his influence” had been rejected.
The publication notes that the initiators hoped to attract funds from the European Rearm Europe program to support the defense industry of EU countries in the future, but the scheme remained at the trial stage and was not implemented.
Rearm Europe was launched by the European Commission in March 2025 to stimulate arms production in EU countries. Romtehnica is the authorized intermediary of the Romanian Ministry of Defense for international procurement and sales of arms and military equipment.
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Friday at a meeting with Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin said that Beijing is ready for military action if anyone makes an attempt to separate Taiwan from China, reports the Chinese edition of Global Times, citing a representative of the defense departments of the People’s Republic of China Wu Qian.
“According to Wu Qian’s statement, Wei Fenghe said that if anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate to fight and resolutely suppress any attempt at ‘Taiwan independence’ at any cost, and will firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” , – writes the edition.
According to him, the Chinese defense minister also condemned the recent US decision to send arms to Taiwan again. He stated that this “caused serious damage to China-US relations, as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin held a bilateral meeting on Friday in Singapore, where a security forum is being held. According to Chinese media company Caixin, Wei Fenghe noted that the meeting lasted about an hour and was “honest and successful.” The Pentagon said that the parties discussed issues of global and regional security, the topics of the DPRK, Russia and Ukraine, as well as Taiwan.
“The minister stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, rejection of a unilateral change in the status quo, and urged China to refrain from destabilizing actions against Taiwan,” the ministry said in a statement.
