Radio România Internațional

Tag: NATO Military Committee

  • January 18, 2018

    January 18, 2018

    PSD — The Social Democrats, the ruling party in the governing coalition in Romania, will next week start talks for establishing the makeup of the new executive. President Klaus Iohannis accepted the proposal of the coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and entrusted Social Democrat MEP Viorica Dancilă with the task of forming the government. The Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea announced that Parliament would be convened in extraordinary session so as to be able to give an investiture vote to the government by January 29th.



    Weather — Two code orange alerts for snowfalls and blizzards are valid until this evening for 18 counties in central, eastern and western Romania. The wind speed exceeds 80-90 kms/h and is supposed to increase up to 120-140 km/h. Another code orange alert for snowfalls is valid also until this evening in the northern half of the country, in the west, the south and southwest. Highs range between minus 1 and plus 8 degrees C. The noon reading in Bucharest was 6 degrees C. According to the Interior Minister, Carmen Dan, electric energy supply was cut in more than 13 localities in 13 counties because of the blizzard, affecting more than 32 thousand consumers. Classes were suspended in several counties, while the maritime ports of Constanta North, Constanta South and Mangalia on the Black Sea Coast were closed. Also the Danube port of Constanata South Agigea was closed and traffic on the Danube-Black Sea canal was restricted.



    GRECO — Romania has made very limited progress in implementing the GRECO recommendations regarding the prevention and the fight against the corruption of MPs, judges and prosecutors, shows a report made public today by GRECO — the Group of States against Corruption, the Council of Europe anti-corruption body. According to GRECO, Romania has fully complied with only two of the 13 recommendations included in a 2016 evaluation report. 7 recommendations were not implemented and another 4 were only partially implemented, the body representatives said. The legislative process is still a matter of concern for GRECO, given the controversies and persistent accusations related to improper consultations, the excessive use of the emergency decree procedure and the lack of transparency in the decision-making process. The evaluation report also shows that the year 2017 was marked by a series of controversial measures, some of them being perceived as attempts to undermine the independence of the judiciary.



    Tennis — The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, world’s no. 1 and the main favorite of the competition on Thursday qualified to the 3rd round of the Australian Open, after defeating in two sets the Canadian player Eugenie Bouchard. Also on Thursday another Romanian, Ana Bogdan, eliminated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the 2nd round. The two Romanian players that remained in the singles competition will play in the 3rd round against the Americans Lauren Davis and Madison Keys respectively. In the men’s doubles, the pair made up of the Romanian Horia Tecău and the Dutch Jean-Julien Roger defeated, in the first round, the Argentinean pair Guillermo Duran/Andres Molteni.



    NATO — NATO considers Russia “a strategic competitor” in its immediate vicinity, especially to Africa and the Middle East, said Curtis Scaparrotti, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations, fresh from the meeting of the NATO Military Committee. In turn, the president of the NATO Military Committee, general Petr Pavel, said the military bloc would expand cooperation with the Middle East countries to boost security in the region. Romania was represented at the meeting in Brussels by the Chief of the General Staff of the Romanian Army, general Nicolae Ciucă. High on the agenda of the meeting were the security challenges on the Alliance’s eastern flank, NATO’s contribution to stabilizing it, the ways to follow in the mission in Afghanistan and NATO’s role in granting assistance to Iraq in reforming the security field. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)

  • January 16, 2017 UPDATE

    January 16, 2017 UPDATE

    PARLIAMENT — In a plenary session on Monday, the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament voted for setting up a commission to investigate the budget rectifications made by the former technocratic government in August and November 2016. The setting up of this commission has been requested by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, whose party returned to power, alongside the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, after winning the parliamentary elections of December 11. The opposition parties stood against the initiative. Also on Monday, the legislature decided in the plenary session to postpone talks on the setting up of a special commission to control the activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service, SIE. In exchange, a relevant commission has been set up for the Romanian Intelligence Service, SRI. Last week, the director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Eduard Hellvig, suspended from office the first deputy director, lieutenant general, Florian Coldea, accused of having committed illegalities by former MP Sebastian Ghita, who, in his turn, is investigated in several corruption files and is reported missing.



    FOREIGN AFFAIRS– The new Romanian foreign minister, Teodor Melescanu, on Monday attended in Brussels, alongside the other EU foreign ministers the monthly meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the Romanian official has hailed the new ceasefire agreement in Syria and underlined that it is important for all sides to abide by it. Melescanu has also expressed Romania’s readiness to support humanitarian efforts as well as Syria’s post-conflict reconstruction. The Romanian foreign minister has discussed, together with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, issues related to the neighbouring Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian speaking population, and the eastern neighbourhood. Also on the sidelines of the meeting, the Romanian official participated, alongside his Bulgarian, Greek and Croatian counterparts in an informal meeting devoted to the situation in the region.



    REP. MOLDOVA– The President of the Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet state, with a predominantly Romanian speaking population), the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon on Monday started a three day visit to Moscow, for talks with the Kremlin leader, Vladimir Putin. According to sources close to his entourage, Dodon’s priorities are to resume Moldovan exports on the Russian market, as they are currently embargoed and to legalise the situation of Moldovan workers in Russia, whose legal stay there has expired. According to the same source, Dodon and Putin will allegedly approach the issue of the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester, which got out from under Chishinau’s control, back in 1992. Elected in November, Dodon is the first high-ranking official in the Republic of Moldova in the past 15 years to start his mandate with an official visit to Moscow. In another move, also on Monday, Dodon called on the Moldovan government to start legal procedures to suspend the Moldovan ambassador to Romania, Mihai Gribincea. The latter has recently said that Dodon’s decree on withdrawing the Moldovan citizenship to the former Romanian President, Traian Basescu, might be unconstitutional. Dodon’s request has been rejected by Moldovan Prime Minister, Pavel Filip.



    NATO– On January 17 and 18, the Military Committee, NATO’s Highest Military Authority, meets in Chiefs of Defence Session in Brussels. Romania is represented in this 176th session by the chief of staff of the Romanian Army, general Nicolae Ciuca. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry, the agenda of the meeting covers such issues as the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan and the current threats to NATO. Sessions devoted to NATO’s partnerships with Ukraine and Georgia will also be organised, among others things, the communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry also shows.



    TENNIS — Two Romanian tennis players, Monica Niculescu (no.32 WTA) and Ana Bogdan (no.125 WTA), on Tuesday will play against the Russians Ana Blinkova (no.189 WTA) and Elena Vesnina (no.18 WTA), respectively, in the singles, in the first round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. On Monday, also in the first round, Sorana Carstea (no.78 WTA) defeated Russian Irina Hromaceva (no.92 WTA), 6-2, 6-1, and Irina Begu (no.29 WTA) outperformed Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova (no.39 WTA), 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Two other Romanians got eliminated. Simona Halep (no.4 WTA) surprisingly got eliminated by American Shelby Rogers (no.57 WTA) 6-3, 6-1 and Patricia Tig got eliminated by Puerto Rican Monica Puig, 6-0, 6-1.(Translated by Diana Vijeu)