Radio România Internațional

Tag: foreign minister

  • January 31, 2025 UPDATE

    January 31, 2025 UPDATE

    MOLDOVA Romania has stood by the Republic of Moldova and will continue to do so, in order to increase its energy resilience and support it in its EU accession efforts, the Romanian foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu promised in Chişinău on Friday, during his first official visit in this capacity. He was received by president Maia Sandu and had meetings with his Moldovan counterpart Mihai Popşoi, and with the speaker of parliament Igor Grosu.

     

    Maia Sandu and Emil Hurezeanu discussed ways to strengthen economic ties between the two states and to encourage Romanian companies to invest in Moldova. Emphasis was also placed on improving transport infrastructure, including the construction of new bridges over the Prut and streamlining cross-border traffic. During his meetings in Chişinău, Emil Hurezeanu emphasised that Moldova’s citizens are not alone in facing the energy crisis and can count on the support of Romania and other partners.

     

    ‘The destabilising effects of the energy crisis have helped tighten our ties. We are happy that Romania has managed to cover over 60% of the citizens’ current energy demand, and the preparation of high-voltage lines is also underway. We have been and will remain by the side of the Republic of Moldova,’ Emil Hurezeanu concluded. (AMP)

  • January 24, 2024

    January 24, 2024

    CELEBRATION Military and religious ceremonies, performances and exhibitions took place on Friday in all the major cities in Romania, marking the Union of the Principalities. In Orthodox churches, special services were performed and bells were rung for a minute. 166 years ago, on January 24, 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected ruler of Wallachia, after having been elected ruler of Moldavia on January 5. The political decision by the principalities to unite was the first stage in the creation of the modern Romanian state. Leading politicians sent messages on the Day of the Union of the Romanian Principalities. “January 24 is a moment of assessment and reflection on the legacy of our ancestors and on the responsibility we have to preserve and promote it,” president Klaus Iohannis emphasised. PM Marcel Ciolacu pointed out that the Union is an example of how an important political project undertaken in accordance with the will of the people can become reality. Romanians enjoy an extended weekend on this occasion, as Union Day has been declared a public holiday. Many have chosen to spend it in mountain resorts.

     

    PROTEST Railway workers, reserve officers, police staff, miners, foresters, steelworkers, Bucharest Metro employees and pensioners Friday took part in a protest rally in front of the Government headquarters. People are unhappy with the government order that froze salary increases for many public sector personnel at the beginning of this year, and because public pensions are no longer adjusted to the inflation rate. According to Radio Romania, a trade union delegation had talks with government officials, but without results. A reorganisation of central public institutions and state-owned companies was also announced these days. According to PM Marcel Ciolacu, restructuring the public sector is a priority for the current governing coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.

     

    DIPLOMACY The Romanian foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu will have a meeting with NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, January 28, reads a statement from the North Atlantic Alliance. On January 14, Emil Hurezeanu received the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, James O’Brien. According to a foreign ministry news release, on that occasion the Romanian official appreciated the US contribution to the security and defense of NATO’s Eastern Flank, as well as to the development of the strategic approach to the Black Sea region. The two officials also appreciated the bilateral relationship, highlighting ‘significant’ achievements such as Romania’s inclusion in the Visa Waiver program, the development of economic and energy sector cooperation, and coordinated Romania – US – EU action.

     

    ELECTIONS The Liberals will convene on Sunday in a special National Council meeting to validate the former party president Crin Antonescu as the joint candidate of the ruling coalition in Romania in the presidential elections in May. The Social Democrats scheduled a special congress on February 2 for the same purpose, and UDMR will make its decision at the beginning of next week. The first and second rounds of the presidential elections are scheduled for May 4 and 18. So far, the mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, the independent candidate Călin Georgescu and the president of Save Romania Union, Elena Lasconi, have announced plans to run for president. The latter two were top placed in the presidential elections canceled last year. After the first election round on November 24 was validated, the Constitutional Court of Romania canceled the election as a whole on December 6, although voting in the second round had already begun abroad. The Court made its decision after the Supreme Defence Council published a report indicating foreign interference in the electoral process, but investigations have so far failed to confirm it. Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets to demand that the second round be resumed.

     

    CORRUPTION The mayor of the popular Romanian mountain resort of Sinaia, the Liberal Vlad Oprea, was placed under court supervision on Thursday, with bail set at over EUR 100,000, as part of a corruption-related investigation. Charges of abuse of office also entailed a ban on him holding the mayor position. According to prosecutors with the National Anticorruption Directorate, among other things, Vlad Oprea allegedly demanded and received almost EUR 240,000 in bribe from a businessman, in exchange for expediting the paperwork for the building of a hotel in the resort.

     

    EXPULSION The Romanian Embassy in Belgrade has asked for clarifications from the Serbian authorities as to why a Romanian national was expelled from the country. Other EU and third country citizens taking part in an NGO training workshop were also involved in the incident. The Romanian, a member of an organisation involved in social projects, was taken to a police station in Belgrade, along with other participants in the workshop. Without explanation, but citing national security reasons, they were ordered to leave Serbia within 24 hours, and banned from entering this country for one year. The Romanian national left the country safely. The expulsion of EU citizens from Serbia is unprecedented. (AMP)

  • The Romanian foreign minister at the UN

    The Romanian foreign minister at the UN

     

     

    Russia’s attacks on the civilian infrastructure in Ukraine carry on, and consolidating the defence in this country is important, which is an aspect to which Ukraine’s neighbor, Romania, also contributes with the donation of a Patriot missile defence system, the Romanian foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu told the Romanian mass media.

     

    The Romanian diplomacy chief last week took part in the UN General Assembly in New York, where she voiced support for the peace plan put forth by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

     

    She said peace in Ukraine must be ‘a just peace,’ based on international law and the UN Charter, and one which recognizes the territorial integrity and independence of Moscow-invaded Ukraine.

     

    The Romanian official explained that she had also discussed the drone attacks on Ukraine’s Romanian border with Bucharest’s Western partners and allies. She also mentioned that a merchant ship carrying Ukrainian grain was recently hit by a Russian missile in the Black Sea. Such attacks ‘affect the security and freedom of navigaton and are flagrant violations of international rules,’ the Romanian foreign minister emphasised.

     

    On the other hand, the security situation in the Middle East is volatile and it is very important that a war affecting the entire region be avoided, Luminiţa Odobescu pointed out.

     

    In the bilateral meetings in New York with political leaders in the Arab world—Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates—she reiterated that Romania consistently supported a two-state solution. But until that time, a lasting truce in Gaza is crucial, concurrently with the release of all the Israeli hostages kidnapped by the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas, and with continuing humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza.

     

    Luminiţa Odobescu emphasized that Bucharest is providing humanitarian aid to Gaza and voiced willingness for Romanian hospitals to treat children from that region, which has been devastated for a year now by a war that has killed over 40,000 and left another 100,000 others wounded.

     

    As for a possible spillover of this conflict to Lebanon, Luminiţa Odobescu said the Romanian diplomatic mission in that country focuses on the Romanian nationals who live there with their families. According to the Romanian official, so far nearly 1,000 Romanian nationals and family members have notified their presence in Lebanon to the Romanian Embassy in Beirut, but no evacuation requests have been received so far. Minister Odobescu reiterated the Romanian authorities’ call on Romanian nationals to avoid traveling to Lebanon, given the recent security developments in the region. (AMP)

  • September 29, 2019 UPDATE

    September 29, 2019 UPDATE

    EU – The Romanian PM said the Social Democrat Rovana Plumb, whom she proposed for the post of European Commissioner representing Romania, continued to enjoy her unconditional support. According to Mrs. Dancila, Rovana Plumb, whom the legal commission prevented from advancing to the next hearing stage, alongside the Hungarian candidate, on Thursday, would be able to meet the requirement of the European Commissioner post. She added that Mrs. Plumb would always put European interests and policies first, as they contribute to the consolidation of the European project. President Klaus Iohannis asked the PM to urgently withdraw the nomination of Rovana Plumb for the position of European Commissioner.



    Washington — The Romanian foreign minister Ramona-Nicole Mănescu has had a series of meetings, at the head office of the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations, with the main American-Jewish organizations among which American Jewish Committee (AJC), Bnai Brith, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The representatives of the respective organizations expressed their appreciation for the partnership between Romania and Israel and especially for the role of leader in fighting anti-Semitism which Romania has assumed and is playing successfully. High on the agenda of talks were also political issues such as the situation in the Middle East, including the latest developments related to Iran, the designation of the entire Hezbollah organization as a terrorist organization, issues related to fighting anti-Semitism as well as measures to compensate the survivors of the Holocaust and to return property. (update by L. Simion)

  • October 11, 2017

    October 11, 2017

    ANTI-CORRUPTION – Romanian Vice-premier Sevil Shhaideh, minister of Regional Development, is again being heard by the anti-corruption prosecutors, in a corruption file in which she is prosecuted alongside the minister delegate for European Funds, Rovana Plumb. The names of the two ministers are among those most frequently mentioned by the media, relative to a prospective government reshuffle, likely to be operated on Tuesday, by PM Mihai Tudose. The Premier held talks on this issue with both President Klaus Iohannis and the Social-Democrat leader, Liviu Dragnea. The leadership of the Social Democratic Party will gather on Thursday to decide what ministers will be replaced.



    MOTION – The Chamber of Deputies in the Romanian Parliament has today rejected a simple motion on the situation of the Romanian healthcare system, filed by MPs in the right-wing Opposition made up of the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the Peoples Movement Party. The document was debated on Tuesday in a plenary session of Parliament, with the signatories calling for the resignation of the line minister, Florian Bodog, and for finding solutions to the problems in the healthcare system. They evoked the vaccine crisis, the unfinished construction works on hospitals and the low level of salaries in healthcare. In response, minister Bodog has said that problems left pending for years cannot be solved in a short time-span, but he added that significant steps have already been taken to solve the situation.



    FOREIGN AFFAIRS – The Romanian foreign minister, Teodor Melescanu, is today in Budapest, alongside his counterparts from Bulgaria, Slovenia and Estonia, to attend, as guests, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Vishegrad Group countries and of the Western Balkan states. Yesterday, at an international conference in Timisoara, western Romania, Melescanu reiterated Romanias readiness to further support countries in the Western Balkans in their effort to join the EU and NATO, on condition they meet political accession criteria. During a recent meeting with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto, held in Cluj, north-western Romania, the Romanian foreign minister said Bucharest is interested in boosting cooperation with the Vishegrad Group member states: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia.



    PROTEST – The trade unionists of the “Ambulanta National Trade Union Federation are today picketing the Labour, Health and Finance Ministries in Bucharest. They call among others, for an end to be put to reducing the monthly incomes of healthcare personnel, and ambulance services employees, respectively, as of January 1 2018, following the introduction of new payment regulations. They also call on the line authorities to give up the idea of transferring the payment of social security contributions from employers to employees, a controversial measure envisaged by the Government. Last but not least, the representatives of ambulance service employees call on the authorities to allot money for purchasing new ambulance cars next year.

  • Reactions after Russia’s threats against NATO members

    Reactions after Russia’s threats against NATO members

    At the end of last year the Kremlin published a new version of Russia’s military policy, overseen by the country’s President Vladimir Putin. The new policy document included the consolidation of NATO’s military capabilities and the anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe among the threats to Russia’s security. Although NATO has repeatedly assured Moscow that the missile defence shield is not targeted against Russia, as its purpose is strictly defensive, Russian leaders have refused to acknowledge that and, even worse, have resorted to threats.



    The most recent such episode took place last week, in Copenhagen, where, in a newspaper article, the Russian Ambassador in Denmark, Mikhail Vanin, was quoted as saying that all countries that joined NATO’s anti-missile shield would be legitimate targets for Russian ballistic missiles and that if Denmark joins the NATO project, its navy will be a target for a Russian nuclear attack.



    Denmark’s Foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard, reacted strongly to the comments, calling the ambassador’s statement “unacceptable”. In its turn, NATO made it clear that it will defend all its allies against any threats. The American Ambassador to Copenhagen also condemned the Russian official’s statements.



    The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, reacted by saying that threatening to use force against a NATO member state is unacceptable. The anti-missile shield is designed only for self-defence, as it is defined by the UN Charter, and has nothing to do with Russia, Bodgan Aurescu has pointed out.



    Romania came under a lot of pressure when it became part of NATO’s ballistic shield system, and so is Poland and anyone else who wants to join in this defensive capability, NATOs top military commander, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove has said in Brussels.



    In the meantime, in the context of Crimea’s annexation by Russia and the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, both NATO and the Russian Federation are carrying out extensive military drills. Last week alone the Alliance carried out a naval military exercise in the Black Sea, which included Romania. Britain, Norway and Germany have also hosted NATO military drills. Russia has in turn planned extensive unannounced military moves in its European arctic region.