31 March, 2016

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis attends nuclear security summit in Washington.

Newsroom, 31.03.2016, 12:00

Romania’s president Klaus
Iohannis is attending the nuclear security summit in Washington. Before his
departure, he emphasised the need for solidarity, responsibility and joint
action in the face of terrorist threats, which can take many forms. He also
said that Romania meets the highest standards when it comes to nuclear
security. Today, Klaus Iohannis will visit the Holocaust Memorial in Washington
and attend a dinner at the White House hosted by US president Barack Obama in
honour of the participants in the summit.

The Bucharest
Tribunal today looks at a request by anticorruption prosecutors to allow the
temporary 30-day arrest of Craiova’s mayor Lia Olguta Vasilescu. She was
detained on Wednesday on charges of bribe taking, using her influence to obtain
undue financial benefits and goods and money laundering. Prosecutors allege
that in 2012, when she was serving as a senator for the Social Democratic
Party, Vasilescu convinced a number of business people to finance her mayoral
race by contributing more than 130,000 euros to her campaign. Also today, the
High Court of Cassation and Justice is considering a new date for the so-called
Referendum case, in which the Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea is accused
of creating a national system of voter influence that allegedly rigged the
referendum on the impeachment of the then president Traian Basescu on 29th
July 2012.

According to the
Pentagon, the US will deploy an armoured brigade in Eastern Europe with
continuous rotations starting in February 2017, as part of efforts to
discourage possible Russian aggression. The brigade will number 4,200 troops,
as well as tanks and other types of armoured vehicles. The troops will rotate
in and out of the allied states on the eastern flank, such as Romania,
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. US combat brigades of the
ground forces are also stationed in Germany and Italy. About 62,000 US military
forces are permanently based in Europe. To reassure its allies in Eastern
Europe, NATO took a series of measures in the spring of 2014, such as opening
logistical centres and deploying fighter aircraft in the Baltic states and
additional ships in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Moscow says the permanent
deployment of troops along its borders violates the NATO-Russia Founding Act
signed in 1997.

The Romanian Intelligence Service is investigating,
together with national and international partners, the use of Romanian anonymous
pre-paid phone cards in areas with terrorist organisations. The Service has
recently said that persons affiliated to terrorist groups have used pre-paid
phone cards in Romania to communicate abroad. The investigation also looks at
the possible use of such cards in the attacks carried out in Europe.

The International Criminal tribunal in The Hague today
acquitted the former leader of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj, who was on
trial for inciting and committing war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia Hertegovina
during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Held for 12 years at the
Scheveningen prision from February 2003
to November 2014, Seselj was temporarily released on humanitarian grounds. He
did not attend the reading of the verdict. A week ago, the court in The Hague
sentenced the former political leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic to
40 years in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Romania may become an important player on the regional
energy market by 2020 if the BRUA natural gas pipeline is developed, the
Romanian economy minister Costin Borc told the Bucharest Forum held by Aspen
Institute Romania. According to the minister, the pipeline, which links
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, provides new opportunities for the
Romanian energy sector on the European market. He also said Romania must
continue work on the Arad-Szeged pipeline between Romania and Hungary and on
the Iasi-Ungheni pipeline linking Romania to the Republic of Moldova, which
will allow Romania to consolidate its position as an exporter on the natural
gas market. The minister also emphasised the need to develop the country’s
transport and IT infrastructure.

Two Romanian women’s handball teams are playing in the
Champions League quarterfinals in two home matches. In their first
participation in this most important club competition in Europe, the Romanian
champions CSM Bucharest face the Russian side Rostov-Don. To qualify for the
Final 4 tournament in Budapest on the 7th and 8th of May, CSM have the difficult
task of defeating the Russian champions, the only team in European women’s
handball to win every match in the last 8 months. The return match is scheduled
for 9th April. The second Romanian team playing today are the domestic
vice-champions HCM Baia Mare, who are facing the Montenegrin side Buducnost
Podgorica. The return match is scheduled for 10th April.

The
Romanian-Russian pair Monica Niculescu and Margarita Gasparian on Friday
face the Hungarian-Kazakh pair Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova in the semifinals of the Miami tennis
tournament worth 6 million dollars in prize money. While this is Niculescu and
Gasparian’s third tournament as a pair, they pulled of a surprising win over
the Swiss-Indian pair Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza. In the
singles event in Miami, world no. 5 Simona Halep of Romania lost to the Swiss
player Timea Bacsinszky, world no. 20, in the quarterfinals.

(Translated by: C. Mateescu)