9 June, 2017 UPDATE
UPDATE: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis meets U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House
Newsroom, 09.06.2017, 19:37
UPDATE: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis meets U.S. President Donald
Trump at the White House
U.S. President, Donald Trump, on
Friday appreciated the example set by Romania among the NATO member states to
increase defense spending from 1.4% to over 2% of the GDP. During a joint press
conference given together with President Klaus Iohannis, after a top-level
meeting at the White House, Donald Trump thanked the Romanian people for their
contribution to U.S. defense and in the fight against terrorism. Together we can confront the common
security challenges facing the world.
He explicitly expressed NATO
Treaty’s Article 5 commitment that an attack on one member country will be
treated as an attack on all. Donald Trump didn’t formally endorse Article 5
commitment at the first NATO Summit he attended, in Brussels in May.
President Trump has also said U.S. strongly supports Romania and the country’s fight against corruption. Referring to investment, he said: We have people going over to Romania
and investing… That shows very, very big progress.
In his turn, President Iohannis has
said the Strategic Partnership shaped
Romania as it is today. Romania, a solid democracy, underlining the
partnership has to become stronger. He has also said it’s
vital for U.S. to have a strong European Union as a partner, adding
that NATO and EU must work together, so that they, as well as U.S., can become
stronger.
When asked about the visa waiver, President Trump said he and President Iohannis didn’t discuss the issue.
President Iohannis has said they will discuss it because many Romanians come to
the U.S. and it’s an important issue.
EXPO ASTANA 2017. Romania will
take part in Astana EXPO 2017 international exposition titled The Energy of the
Future, which opens on Saturday in Kazakhstan’s capital. More than 110
countries are taking part. The central element of the Romanian pavilion will be
the ELI-NP laser project in Magurele, which is seen as the most important
investment in Romanian research in the last 50 years. Romania will present
itself at the exposition in Astana as a country of innovation and inventions.
After 1989, Romania has taken part in all world and international expositions
held under the aegis of the Bureau of International Expositions. EXPO Astana is
open until the 10th of September.
Croatia visit. The Romanian
prime minister Sorin Grindeanu travels to Zagreb on Monday for talks with
Croatia’s president Kolinda Grabar, prime minister Andrej Plenkovic and the
Parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic. Talks will focus on bilateral and
European issues, including the future of the European Union. Romania and
Croatia both support the need for cohesion and solidarity within the Union. The
two countries also plan to work together to join the Schengen area. An
agreement will be signed during prime minister Grindeanu’s visit on the mutual
protection of classified information, as well as a memorandum of understanding
on the cooperation between their respective Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Government order. The Romanian
government on Friday issued an emergency order to amend the fiscal procedure
code to the effect that multinational companies will have to provide reports on
their incomes, profits and taxes in the state where they have their fiscal
residence. According to the government’s spokeswoman Alina Petrescu, the
amendment seeks to translate a European directive into the national
legislation. Multinational companies will also have to report the number of
employees, their declared capital, undistributed profits and fixed assets in
each fiscal jurisdiction. The new order seeks to combat tax evasion and
aggressive tax planning, on the one hand, and make the activities of these
companies more transparent, on the other.
EU. The Deputy Secretary General of the European Commission Jean-Eric Paquet on
Friday held talks in Romania with the local authorities on community law and
the accurate and timely harmonisation with the EU legislation. Jean-Eric Paquet
also discussed the future of Europe with Romanian students and representatives
of civil society, the academic community and the media.
Republic of Moldova. The
Parliament in Chisinau held on new vote on Friday on a protocol to amend a
military cooperation agreement between the governments of Romania and the
Republic of Moldova. The document, which was previously passed by Parliament,
has been rejected by the Moldova’s pro-Russian president Igor Dodon, who views
it as unconstitutional on account of violating his country’s neutrality status.
Signed in April 2012, the agreement also provides for the possibility of carrying
joint military exercises. Igor Dodon has already been opposed on a number of
times to the participation of the Moldovan military in multi-national military
exercises carried out in Romania.
Roland Garros. Romania’s
highest-ranked player and world no. 4 Simona Halep on Saturday faces Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko (world no.
47) in the final of
the Roland Garros tennis tournament. In the semi-finals on Thursday evening,
Halep defeated world no. 3 Karolina
Pliskova of the Czech Republic in three sets. This is
Halep’s second Roland Garros final, having lost her first to Maria Sharapova in
2014. If she wins, Halep becomes world no. 1.
Football. The Romanian football
side face Poland on Saturday in Warsaw in a Group E match as part of the
qualifiers for the World Cup hosted by Russia next year. In other group
fixtures, Kazakhstan face Denmark and Montenegro face Armenia. Poland currently
top the group with 13 points followed by Montenegro and Denmark, each with 8
points, Romania and Armenia, each with 6 points and Kazakhstan with 2 points.
Romania have a foreign manager for the first time in their history, namely the
German coach Cristoph Daum, who took over last autumn after Romania’s mediocre
run at the European Championships in France.
Sibiu festival. The 24th
edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival got under way on Friday.
The French company Remue Menage opened the
festival with their production Abysses held outdoors in the city’s historic
centre. The Sibiu Book Festival also began on Friday, lasting four days. The
indoor events began with a staging of Eugene Ionesco’s Bald Soprano by another
French company. The biggest of its kind in Romania and one of the biggest in
the world, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival will see around 500 different
performances and events for the next ten days, bringing together 3,300
participants from 72 countries. The theme of this year’s edition is love.
