Radio România Internațional

Tag: Busan

  • April 24, 2024 UPDATE

    April 24, 2024 UPDATE

    VISIT On Wednesday and Thursday, the European Commissioner for international partnership, Jutta Urpilainen is paying a visit to Bucharest for talks over Romania’s participation in the investment strategy known as Global Gateway. Jutta Urpilainen will be meeting Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the two are expected to tackle the role Romania can play in deepening the EU international partnerships and the promotion of sustainable development at world level in the present difficult geopolitical context. The EU official will be meeting representatives of the private sector in order to learn the way in which Global Gateway can give an impetus to Romanian enterprises to invest in the developing markets.

     

    TALKS Romania’s Defence Minister, Angel Tîlvăr on Wednesday held talks with the US Secretary of Defence Lloyd J. Austin III. The talks between the two officials mainly focused on the security situation generated by the war of aggression and the unconditional support to Ukraine. The importance of maintaining Trans-Atlantic unity in the present security complex was reiterated. The talks also offered the opportunity of debating elements of interest ahead of the meeting of the Contact group for Ukraine, due on Friday as well as the setting of joint objectives ahead of the Washington Summit this summer.

     

    FAIR The largest book fair in Transylvania – Gaudeamus, organized by Radio Romania, kicked off in Cluj-Napoca, north-western Romania, on Wednesday. The event reached its 23rd edition. 16 pavilions host 60 stands of 85 publishing houses. The fair offers books, music and educational games. There are several thousand books in Romanian, in international languages and in the languages of the national minorities living in Romania. All in all, more than 40 launches and book presentations are scheduled, as well as meetings between writers and readers. The first launch is that of the volume “Naraton” by the late writer Cornel Udrea, one of the voices of the Cluj public radio, who passed away a few days ago.

     

    FILMS Two Romanian films are in the official selection of the famous Cannes Film Festival in France: the feature film “Three kilometers to the end of the world”, the story of the complicated relationships between a teenager and his parents, directed by Emanuel Pârvu, and the documentary “Nasty”, about the life and career of the first world number one in men’s tennis, the Romanian Ilie Năstase, made by Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu and Tudor D. Popescu. “Nasty” will be presented in the Special Screenings section. The Cannes festival also invited in the competition an Iranian filmmaker who criticizes the fundamentalist regime in Tehran, Mohammad Rasoulof. A total of 22 films will compete in 2024 to win the Palme d’Or trophy. The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place between May 14-25.

     

    SEOUL On the last day of the visit of Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, to South Korea, the official delegation visited, on Wednesday, the Doosan Enerbility complex in Busan, a world leader in energy production. On this occasion Klaus Iohannis said that Bucharest is very interested in working with international partners on the development and implementation of the small modular reactors technology in Romania. On Tuesday evening, the Romanian president participated in an exhibition of traditional Romanian art. During his visit to Seoul, Romania and South Korea decided to expand their bilateral cooperation, by signing a joint declaration on strengthening the bilateral strategic partnership and several cooperation agreements in the fields of defense, energy or emergency situations management.

     

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  • February 20, 2024

    February 20, 2024

    VISIT The Romanian Senate Speaker, Nicolae Ciucă, who is on an official visit to Madrid, has talks scheduled today with the head of the People’s Party in Spain, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, and the secretary general for defence policy, Juan Francisco Martinez Nunez. Mr. Ciucǎ will also have a meeting with the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Spain and Portugal, Timotei. On Monday, after the meeting with his counterpart, Pedro Rollan Ojeda, Nicolae Ciuca announced that the Romanians living in Spain may hold dual citizenship as of this year.

     

    ELECTIONS The leaders of the Social Democratic Party and National Liberal Party in Romania’s ruling coalition are meeting again on Wednesday to decide on whether to merge this year’s elections, after the talks so far have failed. The Liberals want the local elections to take place this summer concurrently with the elections for the European Parliament, while the Social Democrats want the parliamentary elections due this autumn to be held jointly with the second round of the presidential election. Save Romania Union, in opposition, threatened to take any legislation merging the elections to the Constitutional Court. This year all 4 types of elections are scheduled in Romania (local, parliamentary, and presidential ballots, and elections for the EP).

     

    HEALTH Some 3.3 million sick leaves were given in Romania last year, which is significantly below the over 4 million reported in 2022. Most sick leaves were taken by cancer patients and pregnant women. The head of the National Health Insurance Agency, Valeria Herdea, says this is not about the number of sick leave days taken by people, but about the fact that many citizens have health problems. Recently, the government has issued an order introducing a 10% tax on sick leave allowances. The authorities argued this was to discourage the practice of taking sick leaves for minor health problems. But the order triggered discontent especially among cancer patients. The Senate withdrew the provision, and the order is to be discussed next in the Chamber of Deputies.

     

    AUTOMOTIVE The Romanian automotive market will likely see a moderate 5% growth this year, the Romanian Automobile Producers and Importers Association (APIA) announced. The Association expects EV sales to continue to increase, and sales of diesel vehicles to drop in 2024.

     

    MISSION The European Union has launched its own naval mission to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Romania may also take part in the mission. Greece will provide a commander for its operational headquarters, while Italy will provide the force commander. According to the Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani, since November Houthi rebels have been attacking commercial vessels on this route, allegedly in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza.

     

    TABLE TENNIS Romania’s men’s team have qualified in the round of 32 of the world table tennis championships in Busan, South Korea, after defeating Iran, 3-1 on Tuesday. On Monday, Romania’s women’s team went straight into the eighth-finals. Taking part in the men’s and women’s competition in South Korea are 40 teams. The top 8 teams at the World Championships are qualified in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris. (AMP)