Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian traditional blouse

  • June 24, 2024

    June 24, 2024

     VISIT – Chief of Defense Staff, General Gheorghiţă Vlad, on Sunday met the Defense Minister of Luxembourg, Yuriko Backes, and Luxembourg’s Chief of Defense Staff, Steve Thull on the sidelines of his visit to Luxembourg. According to a Defense Ministry release, the agenda of talks focused on security developments in the extended Black Sea region, defense architecture in Euro-Atlantic space, as well as intensifying cooperation by means of multinational exercises on Romania’s territory. General Vlad highlighted the contribution of Luxembourg’s troops to the Forward Presence Battle Group deployed to Romania with a view to consolidating NATO’s deterrence and defense posture.

     

     

    FAC – Also in Luxembourg, Romania’s Foreign Minister Luminița Odobescu on Monday is taking part in the Foreign Affairs Council meeting. Participants will address Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, developments in the Middle East and Georgia. According to the Romanian MFA, talks on Russia’s war in Ukraine will focus on recent developments on the ground and EU military assistance to Kyiv. New sanctions against Russia and Belarus will also be discussed, in addition to EU-Ukraine security commitments and the conclusions of the Ukraine Peace Summit, hosted by Switzerland over June 15-16. As regards the Middle East, EU Foreign Ministers will consider the possibility of re-launching political talks for ensuring sustainable peace in the region. As part of an informal breakfast meeting with partners in the Western Balkans, participants will exchange views regarding the impact of geopolitical and security developments on this region.

     

     

    EU ACCESSION – The European Union on Tuesday is expected to launch EU accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, the Belgian presidency has announced. The two countries’ negotiation chapters will be assessed separately. We recall the EU officially launched negotiation talks with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova in mid-December 2023. Earlier this month, the European Commission announced Kyiv and Chișinău have officially met all requirements to open negotiation talks.

     

     

    INCIDENT – The body of the third young Romanian who drowned on May 31 in Italy was found on Sunday, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent, the Italian authorities are investigating the intervention of response teams in the wake of this tragedy, more specifically how rescue teams were deployed and how emergency call operators responded. We recall that 3 Romanians died in May after the waters of Natisone River rose to dangerous levels in the wake of flash floods.

     

     

    WAR IN GAZA – Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, is paying an official visit to Washington to hold talks with US officials about developments in Gaza. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said heavy fighting in Rafah against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas are about to end. According to Benjamin Netanyahu, the war won’t end until all Hamas control over Gaza is eliminated. We recall hostilities broke out in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

     

     

    BLOUSE – June 24 marks the International Day of the Romanian Blouse, a specific item of traditional clothing.  Last weekend, Romanian and Moldovan communities in Belgium celebrated this special day. A symposium was held at Château de la Solitude, a heritage building in Auderghem, Brussels. Two debates were also held on this occasion, attended by a large audience, interested to learn more about ethnography and folklore, the process behind the manufacturing of the Romanian blouse and the transition from tradition to modernity. The connection between the Romanian blouse and the celebration of the Sânziene, gentle fairies in Romanian mythology, as well as literature on related folk stories were also topics of debate.

     

     

    RECORD – The Romanian-Moldovan-German Cultural Center in Nuremberg, Germany, entered the Guinness Book of Records twice for the longest belt manufactured within the space of three months, measuring over 1,600 meters and the heaviest belt, weighing 70 kg. The initiative was launched at the end of February, and since then over a thousand Romanians from all over the world have joined the project and helped manufacture the longest chain belt. Each segment displays the motif of a specific area of Romania, Ionela van Rees-Zota, coordinator of the Cultural Center, told Radio Romania. “We have a representative or an association from almost every county in Romania. We have people from all over the world, from New Zealand to the Republic of Moldova and from Norway to Asia”, Ionela van Rees-Zota said. (VP)

  • December 2, 2022

    December 2, 2022

    VISIT – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, is paying a two-day
    visit to Greece, where he will meet with his Greek counterpart, Katerina Sakellaropoulou
    and Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. According to the Presidency,
    the visit confirms the continuous top-level dialogue and close cooperation
    between Romania and Greece with respect to hot topics on the current agenda.
    Talks will also focus on the potential of developing bilateral relations in the
    fields of economy and investments, culture, education, civil protection and
    tourism. Special attention will be devoted to infrastructure and
    interconnection projects, including in the energy sector, designed to curb
    dependency on Russian gas and boost the energy security of both Romania and
    Greece. Other topics on the agenda for talks include Russia’s illegal war in
    Ukraine and the consequences of this conflict at several levels.




    UNESCO – The Romanian traditional embroidered blouse known as ‘ie’
    was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
    of Humanity. Romania had submitted the application jointly with the Republic of
    Moldova. The decision of the UNESCO Committee convened in Rabat, Morocco, comes
    in recognition of the identity and value of this element, also sending out a
    strong signal to Romanian and Moldovan cultural institutions that they should
    support and promote the art of the traditional embroidered blouse, which
    represents the centerpiece of the Romanian traditional festive outfit. Lipizzan
    horse breeding traditions in Romania and other European countries are also part
    of the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
    Humanity.




    BUSINESS – The number of foreign startups in Romania has gone up in
    the first ten months of the year by 30.7% compared to the same period of last
    year, the National Trade Register Office reports. Some 6,100 new businesses were
    set up this year with a total capital of 35 million USD. By the end of the
    October, over 243 thousand companies with foreign capital participation
    operated in Romania, with a total subscribed capital of 67 billion USD. The
    largest number of companies with foreign participation had Italian investors, while
    Dutch businesses had the largest share of capital.




    WAR IN UKRAINE – President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that
    Ukraine will restrict the activity of Russian-affiliated religious
    organizations on its territory and will challenge the status of the Ukrainian
    Orthodox Church, which is still connected to the Moscow Patriarchate. The
    announcement comes after Ukrainian security services searched several church
    buildings in November. Ukrainian services confiscated a few thousand USD and
    pro-Russian literature. Ukraine has two separate Eastern Orthodox
    ecclesiastical bodies: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which in spring
    broke ties with the Moscow Patriarchate due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
    and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which in 2019 was formally recognized
    by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople as a separate, independent and equal
    member of the worldwide communion of Orthodox churches.




    DIALOGUE – The presidents of the United States of America and
    France, Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron respectively, have expressed their joint
    intention of coming up with a solution to end the war in Ukraine without
    reducing however their countries’ assistance to Kyiv. During a visit paid to
    Washington by the French president, the White House leader said he is ready to
    talk to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, if the latter is willing to
    reach a solution to end the war. Prior to the invasion of Ukraine on February
    24, president Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had warned Russia
    about the consequences of such an attack. Since then, the US president has had
    no direct contact with Moscow, although high-ranking US officials maintained
    communication channels open. In turn, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron,
    confirmed his readiness to talk to Vladimir Putin, particularly regarding
    sensitive topics such as civilian nuclear power and the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The
    last official meeting between Macron and Putin was held on September 11.




    NATIONAL DAY – December 1, the National Day of Romania, was
    celebrated on Thursday at home and abroad. Despite the rain, thousands of
    people attended the military parades held in Bucharest and Alba Iulia. Over
    1,500 servicemen took part in the event, alongside 150 military from Belgium,
    France, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Portugal, the USA and the
    Netherlands, as well as from other countries part of NATO structures in
    Romania.




    GAUDEAMUS – The 29th edition of the Gaudeamus Book
    Fair hosted by Radio Romania kicks off next week. 200 publishers will be
    exhibiting their latest and current releases in various formats, addressing all
    age brackets and fields of interests, music as well as educational games. 600
    events have been announced in addition to various related projects. Pavilions
    are also available online on gaudeamus.ro. The Gaudeamus Book Fair is
    financed by the Ministry of Culture. (VP)