Radio România Internațional

Tag: Security Council

  • October 25, 2023 UPDATE

    October 25, 2023 UPDATE

    GOVERNMENT The government of
    Romania is ready to pass an emergency order on new minimum wages in
    constructions, agriculture and the food industry, PM Marcel Ciolacu announced.
    He made the statement after a meeting with trade unions and employer
    associations. Both in terms of the new minimum salary in constructions (around
    EUR 920) and of the ones in agriculture and the food industry (roughly EUR
    690), not a penny of the net wages is being cut, Marcel Ciolacu explained. On the other hand, the government drafted an order on
    reducing public sector expenditure at the end of this year.


    EU The president of
    Romania, Klaus Iohannis, takes part on Thursday and Friday in the meeting of
    the European Council and the inclusive Euro Summit meeting in Brussels, the
    Romanian presidency announced. The agenda of the European Council meeting
    includes topics like the situation in Ukraine, updating the Multi-Annual
    Financial Framework, economic issues, migration management and the EU foreign
    relations, with a focus on the situation in the Middle East, Kosovo and Serbia,
    and the developments in the Sahel region. As far as Ukraine is concerned, the
    EU leaders will also discuss the Union’s multidimensional support. President Iohannis
    will emphasise that Romania will remain a firm supporter of Ukraine and will
    plead for further support from the European bloc to that country for as long as
    necessary. Mr. Iohannis will also support opening accession negotiations with Ukraine
    and the R. of Moldova by the end of this year. At the Euro Summit, the
    participants will discuss the economic situation in the EU.


    REVOLUTION The case
    file concerning the December 1989 anti-communist uprising will be tried on its
    substance, the Bucharest Court of Appeals ruled after the magistrates dismissed
    all the objections made by the defendants. The decision is not final and may be
    challenged. The defendants in the so-called Revolution case include the
    former president Ion Iliescu, former deputy PM Gelu Voican Voiculescu and the
    retired general Iosif Rus, indicted by military prosecutors for crimes against
    humanity committed between December 22 and 30, 1989, when over 1,000 people died and some 3,000
    were wounded. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country where the communist
    regime ended in violence and the communist leaders Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu
    were executed.


    ARMY DAY In all military units in
    Romania and theatres of operations where Romanian troops are deployed, ceremonies
    were held on Wednesday to mark the Romanian Army Day. In Bucharest, president
    Klaus Iohannis said this is a very complicated period, with global peace and
    security threatened by regional conflicts. Europe is facing the worst crisis
    since WWII because of Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, while the
    October 7 terrorist attack on Israel might destabilise the Middle East in the
    long run, Iohannis added. In turn, PM Marcel Ciolacu said Romania’s NATO
    membership is a guarantee that the security of Romanian citizens will never
    come under threat. The defence minister Angel Tîlvăr pointed out that the
    Romanian Army has risen to NATO standards in many respects, and added that
    earmarking 2% of GDP since 2017 and 2.5% of GDP this year to the defence sector
    enabled the implementation of ambitious procurement programmes. Meanwhile, the
    Romanian troops’ participation in UN, EU and NATO missions over the past
    decades has strengthened Romania’s security profile, Angel Tîlvăr added.


    ISRAEL Israel has demanded the resignation of the UN Secretary General, Antonio
    Guterres, over accusations of justifying terrorism and the crimes committed by
    Hamas. Guterres said in a Security Council meeting that the attacks of Hamas on
    Israel did not happen without reason. He made it clear, however, that the
    suffering of the Palestinians in what he called 56 years of suffocating
    occupation cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas, just as these
    attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. On
    Wednesday, Israel accepted a request from the US to delay its invasion of Gaza
    for the time being, so that the US may bring missile defence in the region, US
    and Israeli officials announced, quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The United
    States says it will work with China to de-escalate the situation in the Middle
    East. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he would work with
    the Chinese foreign minister, who is travelling to Washington at the end of this
    week, to prevent the conflict from expanding. The president of France, Emmanuel
    Macron, Wednesday concluded his two-day tour to the Middle East, which included
    Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. His message was unambiguous, calling
    for preventing a spill-over of the conflict, for freeing the hostages taken by
    the terrorist group Hamas and for aid for the Palestinians in Gaza. (AMP)

  • Romania’s President at the UN General Assembly

    Romania’s President at the UN General Assembly

    President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday expressed hope that Romania’s track-record within the United Nations will convince world leaders to back the country’s candidacy for non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for the term 2020-2021. In his address delivered before the UN General Assembly in New York, the president said that peace, development and justice are foundational pillars of the country’s multilateral strategy.



    Romania will be a responsible partner in promoting a common agenda of the United Nations, the President went on to say. According to the Romanian official, the Security Council could play a more prominent role in addressing more aspects that impact peace and security, such as climate change. Klaus Iohannis believes climate change has become one of the toughest global challenges. Its consequences, be it water shortage, food insecurity and displacement of people or rising sea levels, threaten lives all around the world.



    In addition to the efforts of other UN platforms to tackle climate related risks, the Security Council could create the framework to address them in an integrated manner. “We welcomed the organization of a debate in the Security Council this July on aspects of peace and security related to climate change and we are ready to follow-up on the topic if elected as a non-permanent member”, Klaus Iohannis said.



    The president went on to say that during its term at the helm of the EU Council in the first half of 2019, Romania is determined to strengthen the European Union — United Nations partnership. “And when I speak about engagement I don’t just mean politicians and diplomats. We have to reach out to our younger people, representatives of the civil society, journalists, business people. We need them all for the cause of multilateralism and global leadership”, Klaus Iohannis told the UN General Assembly. In this context, the president said that in April 2019 Romania will host an international conference titled “Building resilience to natural disasters”.



    President Iohannis also said that UN member states have a duty towards their citizens to better explain the current challenges to peace, equity and sustainability of our societies and to speak more about the role of the United Nations in addressing them. The Romanian President also pointed out that citizens need to be informed on potential security threats. Since its UN accession in 1955, Romania has had another four mandates of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.


  • August 11, 2016 UPDATE

    August 11, 2016 UPDATE

    QUEEN ANNE – Members of European royal families will attend the funeral of Queen Anne, the Press Office of King Michael I announced on Thursday. So far, members of the Russian, Austrian and German imperial families and of the royal families of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg have confirmed their presence. The casket will be in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace in Bucharest until Friday. On Wednesday, at the former summer residence of Romanian royalty, Peles Castle, in Sinaia, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti, and Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos were among the many officials paying their respects. The funeral is scheduled for Saturday in Curtea de Arges. King Michael will be unable to attend the funeral due to ill health. The queen died on August 1st aged 92 in Switzerland, after a battle with cancer.



    REPORT – The PM of Romania Dacian Ciolos Thursday rated the Sky News story on alleged weapon smuggling in Romania as unacceptable. He emphasised that a country should not be shed negative light on without evidence, and announced that Romanian authorities had taken a stand on the matter. The Prosecutors Office Investigating Terrorism and Organised Crime (DIICOT) has started an investigation. Several house searches were conducted in northern Romania, which identified the individuals featured in the story, and the weapons were seized. The DIICOT head prosecutor Daniel Horodniceanu has said that so far the report appears to have been staged. On Thursday the institution ordered the prosecution of 3 of the Romanians appearing in the report, including the one who introduced the British journalists to the alleged smugglers. One of the 3 has been detained, said his lawyer. They have been accused of aiding in giving false information, of setting up an organised crime group and of breaching weapon regulations. The British tv channel stands by its report, although the British broadcasting regulatory body has received several notifications regarding the Sky News story. The British journalists argue that, after two months of negotiations, they were pointed to an isolated area in Romania, where they met weapon smugglers who allegedly brought in weapons from Ukraine to be sold in western Europe and the Middle East.



    CRIMEA – A new escalation of tensions between Ukraine and Russia is in the focus on attention of the international community. The UN Security Council is to discuss the growing tension between Moscow and Kyiv over Crimea, after Russias accusations that Ukraine plotted attacks in the disputed Black Sea peninsula. NATO also expressed concerns with a new escalation of tensions between the two countries. The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, Thursday put all military units near Crimea and the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk on alert, for fear of a military conflict with Russia. The announcement came after on Wednesday his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, accused Kyiv of using “terror tactics so as to reignite conflict and destabilise Crimea. Russia annexed this Black Sea Peninsula in 2014. The conflict in east Ukraine, between government forces and pro-Russian insurgents, has so far killed 9,500 people.

  • January 5, 2016

    January 5, 2016

    Although temperatures are slightly increasing, the weather remains very cold for this time of the year in Romania. Snowfalls are still reported in the south-east and north-west. The highs range between minus 8 and 5 degrees Celsius, with a minus 6 degree reading in Bucharest at noon. Over the past few days, 3 people died because of the biting cold, and 42 others have been rescued by the authorities. Road, railway and air transport is disrupted by the snow and wind.



    Bulgaria, Romanias southern neighbour, announced a code yellow alert against snow, black ice and strong wind, valid today in several parts of the country, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced. Romanian citizens who travel or intend to travel to Bulgaria are urged to have their vehicles properly equipped and to check the latest news in this respect. The Foreign Ministry previously warned Romanian tourists that a similar alert was in place in Bosnia-Herzegovina.



    The importance of guaranteeing the freedom of the press is vital to any democratic country, particularly in a EU member state, said the Liberal Deputy Ionuţ Stroe, the head of Romanias delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In a statement to Radio Romania, he described as disquieting the fact that a law drafted by the new Conservative power in Poland, under which the directors of the public radio and television stations are to be appointed by the finance minister, was passed by the Parliament in Warsaw without public debate. On Monday, 4 international media freedom watchdogs filed a complaint in this respect with the Council of Europe. They criticise the law as threatening the independence of public media. The authors of the protest urge the Polish Conservative party “Law and Justice to immediately scrap this law, which is pending for promulgation by President Andrzej Duda, from the same party.



    Copenhagen announced temporary controls on its German border, shortly after Sweden had taken similar measures at its border with Denmark. The Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned that unless the EU manages to protect its borders, several countries will have to tighten security checks. He explained that, following the restrictions imposed by Sweden, Denmark might be faced with a large number of illegal immigrants. In turn, the Swedish authorities claim that they are trying to reduce the number of refugees reaching their country. Last year, 160,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, the largest number in Europe after Germany. Denmark and Sweden are the last states to introduce border checks in the Schengen zone. In September 2015, Germany introduced controls on its Austrian border, and last week Norway, which is not an EU member but is part of the visa-free area, announced that travelers without a visa would be denied access to the country.



    The leaders of the Moldovan pro-Western Liberal and Democratic parties, announced they would hold new talks in order to form a new parliamentary majority and a new government. The announcement comes after on Monday the prime minister designate, Ion Sturza, failed to get the votes of a sufficient number of MPs in the Moldovan Parliament, more than half of whose members were absent from the session. The Parliament Speaker, Adrian Candu, said that the vote is failed according to the Constitutional Court rules, and the head of state Nicolae Timofti is now to nominate a new candidate for the PM seat. Should the new attempt fail as well, Timofti must dissolve the Parliament and announce early elections. The previous cabinet, headed by the Liberal-Democrat Valeriu Streleţ, was dismissed on October 29, following a no-confidence motion tabled by the pro-Russian Communists and Socialists, but backed by the Democratic Party as well.



    The UN Security Council strongly criticized the attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, and Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic ties with Iran after its embassy in Tehran was stormed and set alight by violent protesters, disgruntled with the execution of Shia Muslim cleric Nimr Baaqer al-Nimr by Riyadh. As tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalate, Russia expressed willingness to host negotiations between the two foreign ministers. In turn, the EU and USA call for calm following the row between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran.



    The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number 2 in the world, has withdrawn from the Brisbane tournament in Australia, having nearly 900,000 US dollars in prize money, and so did the current trophy holder, no. 4 WTA Maria Sharapova of Russia. Simona said that, in spite of the problem with her left leg, she would take part in the Sydney tournament next week. Two other Romanian players, Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Ţig, have qualified in the doubles quarter-finals of the Shenzhen tournament in China, which has 500,000 US dollars in prize money. In the first round, they defeated Zarina Dias / Ling Zhang (Kazakhstan/China), 6-2, 6-4.