VISIT – Todays has been the last day of the visit Romanias president Klaus Iohannis paid to Italy. The president has had a meeting with the mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris, focusing on the Romanian community in Italy, made up of approximately 1.2 million people. Klaus Iohannis has hailed the fact that the Romanian community is growing more active, more involved and more capable of doing business, contributing to arts and sciences and to the development of the society that has welcomed them. Previously, he had formal meetings with his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella, the president of the Council of Ministers Giuseppe Conte, the Senate Speaker Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico. Also, Klaus Iohannis had a meeting with the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, and talked with representatives of the Romanian community in Italy. The Romanian Presidential Administration has recalled that the visit paid by Iohannis to Italy took place against the background of this years celebration of 100 years since the Great Union and of 10 years since the ties between Romania and Italy were lifted to the level of consolidated strategic partnership. This is the first visit paid by a Romanian head of state to Italy in the past 45 years.
COOPERATION – The Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila continues her visit to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Yesterday, in Dubai, during the meeting she had with Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Ms. Dancila presented the latest investment opportunities in Romania and encouraged the companies in the Arab Emirates to participate in tenders organized either for projects funded from the existing operational programmes, or for public-private partnership projects. She stated that Romania will keep paying special attention to the eastern neighborhood of the EU, especially given that our country will be holding the presidency of the EU Council for six months. Trade exchanges between Romania and the United Arab Emirates exceed 366 million Euros. Another 70 million come from exchanges of services. Moreover, there are 70 companies from the Emirates operating in Romania, with a total capital standing at 24 million Euros. Previously, the Romanian Prime Minister had paid a visit to Turkey.
MOTION – The Romanian Chamber of Deputies has today rejected the simple motion filed by the opposition National Liberal Party against the Minister of Culture, George Ivascu, after debates held on Monday. The Liberals say culture in Romania is in a grave situation, needing urgent solutions for the many problems it is faced with. In turn, minister George Ivascu has stated that the motion included distorted information and superficial accusations, which prove nothing but ill faith. The National Liberal Party has filed another motion today, this time against the Minister of Waters and Forest, Ioan Denes, accusing him of incompetence.
VISIT – The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, starts today a two day visit to the Republic of Moldova, the former Soviet country with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, aimed at boosting bilateral relations. Besides talks with the president of the country Igor Dodon and the pro-European prime-minister Pavel Filip, a joint strategic cooperation declaration will also be signed. Radio Chisinau reports that Erdogans visit is taking place against the background of a recent scandal concerning the detention and expulsion from Moldova of seven teachers from the Moldovan-Turkish High-School, accused of being members of the network headed by the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is accused by the power in Ankara of having organized the attempted coup in Turkey, two years ago.
OLYMPIAD – Romanian pupils have won five medals – two gold, on silver and two bronze – at the International Astronomy Olympiad, held over October 6-14 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The competition brought together 80 contenders from 18 countries. Romanian pupils have had great results this year in other competitions as well: 9 prizes at the International French Language Olympiad in Ohrid, Macedonia, 5 medals from the International Physics Olympiad in Lisbon, 4 medals from the Central European Olympiad in Informatics and 4 medals from the International Earth Science Olympiad in Warsaw.
FOOTBALL – Romanias under-21 football team has qualified for the UEFA Under-21 Championship due next year, after defeating Liechtenstein 4-nil on Tuesday, on home turf, in Ploiesti. That was its last game in Group 8 of the preliminaries. Romania has thus managed to qualify for the second time for a European Youth Championship, after the one of 1998 when the final tour was held in Bucharest. The European Championship will be hosted by Italy and San Marino in June 2019, with 12 teams participating. The countries that have qualified so far are Italy, Spain, France, England, Serbia, Germany, Croatia, Denmark, Belgium and Romania.