PEACEKEEPING
– The city of Arad, in western Romania, on Saturday hosted a ceremony featuring
the joint Romanian – Hungarian Peacekeeping Battalion. This battalion was set
up in 1998 as the first such unit in Romania, and also the first joint entity
of this type in the world. It is 899 strong, and its command is ensured by
rotation. The ceremonies in Arad were attended by the Romanian Defense Minister
Mihai Fifor, who also attended an athletics event, organized by two education
units in the county, also with the aim of promoting the Invictus project,
involving soldiers wounded in theaters
of operations abroad. Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event,
created in 2014 by Prince Harry, in which wounded armed services personnel take
part. Romania was the first country from the East-European bloc invited to
participate in the games.
LA
FRANCOPHONIE – The Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu is attending in
Paris La Francophonie’s Ministerial Meeting. The theme of the meeting is the
blue and the green economies as drivers of prosperity, social inclusion and
sustainable development. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian
Foreign Ministry, the minister will convey a message about the importance of
preserving natural resources for the coming generations and stimulating a
responsible economic growth. Teodor Melescanu will also speak about Romania’s
commitment to the new economies, as drivers of sustainable development. On the
sidelines of the conference, Romania’s delegation will continue the political
and diplomatic dialogue with the Francophone countries, by means of bilateral talks, focusing on cooperation, in particular at UN level.
GAUDEAMUS
FAIR – The Gaudeamus International Book Fair, organized by Radio Romania continues in Bucharest. This year’s guest of
honour is the European Commission. The Casa Radio publishing house is
participating this year with a special collection of audio-books, representing a
wide range of literary styles, poetry in particular. On Friday, the fair hosted
more than 200 events, mostly book launches.
This year’s edition of Gaudeamus marks three important events: 60 years
since the signing of the Rome treaty, 30 since the launch of the Erasmus programme
and 10 years since Romania’s EU accession. Under the motto ‘Unity in
Diversity’, the EU encourages people to discover and explore the rich cultural
heritage of the old continent.
HANDBALL
– Romania’s national women’s handball team is today taking on the Macedonian
squad at the Carpati Trophy, a competition organized in Craiova, southern
Romania, held in preparation for the World Championship. On Friday, the
Romanian players were defeated by the Polish team 27-21. The next game is due
on Sunday, against Brazil. At the World Championship in Germany, scheduled to
start on December 1st, Romania is part of Group A, alongside France,
Spain, Slovenia, Angola and Paraguay. Romania is the only team that has
participated in all the 22 editions of the Championship held so far. In 2015,
our national team won bronze.
RUGBY
– Romania’s rugby team is playing today against Tonga in a test match. The two
national squads have met twice before, also in test matches hosted by
Bucharest. In 2013, the Romanian oaks won the match against Tonga 19-18, but
in 2015 were defeated 21-16. If it wins today, the Romanian team, currently
holding the 14th place in the rankings, will go one place up. A week
ago, ‘the oaks’ defeated the Samoan team 17-13.