April 11, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 11.04.2023, 20:30

NATO
Romania’s National Defence
Minister Angel Tîlvăr and
Chief of Staff, General Daniel Petrescu will be meeting in Bucharest on
Wednesday Admiral Robert Bauer, chair of the NATO Military Committee, who is
paying a visit to Romania over April 11th and 14th . According to a communiqué
by the Ministry of Defence, talks will be focusing on the security situation in
the Black Sea area as well as on NATO’s missions and operations. On Tuesday,
the Defence Ministry and the Chief of Staff talked to the commands of the
structures deployed to various operation theaters in Kosovo and
Bosnia-Herzegovina and with the Romanian troops currently doing missions in
Bulgaria, Lithuania and Poland. The Romanian troops presented the assessment of
the security situation in their areas and the stage of their missions. Your
efforts are contributing to our peace, to everybody’s peace actually,
particularly at this time when our region has been deeply troubled by the
Russian invasion in the neighboring Ukraine, the Defence Minister says.

VISIT The European Commissioner for internal market Thierry Breton will
be paying a visit to Bucharest on Wednesday, the European Commission
Representation to Bucharest has announced. The European Commissioner will be
having talks with Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciuca and the president of the
Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu. The EU official will be also visiting the
future headquarters of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre jointly
with the Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization, Sebastian Burduja.
Also on Wednesday, Breton will be visiting two major plants specialized in
equipment and gears for the defence industry in southern Romania.

DEFENCE
Romania continues to act firmly, united and efficiently alongside its allies
and partners to promote security and stability in the Black Sea region, an area
of strategic importance for Euro-Atlantic security. The announcement was made
by president Klaus Iohannis in a statement released after a meeting of the
Country’s Supreme Defence Council which he chaired today in Bucharest. The
fundamental aspect remains national security and supporting Ukraine and the
Republic of Moldova contributes directly to the consolidation of Romania’s
security, the statement also writes. Maintaining a consistent and
multidimensional support for the neighbouring Ukraine, as part of NATO and the
European Union, is of critical importance for ensuring the success of efforts
to defend this state. The meeting also analysed the development of Romania’s air
force. According to the statement, the modernisation of the air force will
continue with the purchase of latest generation F-35 aircraft. The achievement
of robust, credible, interoperable, flexible and efficient air defence
operational capabilities aimed both at fulfilling the commitments deriving from
the NATO and EU membership and at discouraging possible aggression, is an
essential condition for fulfilling Romania’s defence policy objectives, the
statement also reads.

IMF The IMF has revised the forecast for
Romania’s economic growth this year from an initial estimate of 3% down to
2.4%. According to the new IMF calculations published on Tuesday, Romania is
expected to register a 3.7% growth next year. The IMF believes that inflation
in Romania will this year stay around 10.5% after a 13.8% last year and price
hikes will significantly slow down only in 2024, when the inflation rate is
expected to be under 6%.

(bill)