August 27, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 27.08.2014, 12:15
The Romanian PM Victor Ponta, his Moldovan counterpart, pro-European Iurie Leanca and the European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger inaugurated on Wednesday the gas pipeline linking Iasi to Ungheni. Meant to reduce Chisinau’s dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, the pipeline provides Romanian gas to Moldova. Through the 43.2 km long pipeline Romania will deliver, at first, about 50 million cubic meters per year, and the amount will triple in the future. Bucharest has covered the greatest part of project’ costs of 26 million euros, the rest being contributed by the EC. Also on Wednesday the Romanian and Moldovan prime ministers visited the building site of a future kindergarten, which is part of a 20 million euros worth of project funded by the Romanian Government for the construction and modernization of the school infrastructure in the Republic of Moldova. The Romanian PM’s visit coincides with Moldova’s celebrating its independence from the USSR 23 year ago. On August 27, 1991 the Parliament, picketed by hundreds of thousands of protesters, voted the declaration of independence from the Soviet Union of the republic set up on the Romanian eastern territories annexed by Stalin in 1940.
The three-day Annual Meeting of Romanian Diplomacy started Wednesday in Bucharest. Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean is joined by Romanian heads of diplomatic missions abroad and heads of Romanian cultural institutes all over the world in an analysis and review of Romanian diplomatic activity and aims in the current international context. Attending the meeting, the PM Victor Ponta called on the Romanian diplomats to clearly present Romania’s stand on the most important topics of the moment while also promoting the legitimate interests of Romania, of the EU and its strategic partners. The PM also added that at the NATO summit to be held in Wales in September Romania would support the consolidation of the Alliance’s eastern flank, the strengthening of the strategic partnership with Turkey and Poland and a stronger NATO military presence on Romania’s territory. Among the foreign guests are EU head of diplomacy Catherine Ashton, who also acts as vice-president of the EC, as well as the Georgian and Moldovan foreign ministers, Maia Panjikidze and Natalia Gherman.
The Romanian Defense Minister, Mircea Dusa, will pay a visit to France on Thursday and Friday at the invitation of his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian. The two will talk about the NATO summit to be held in Wales in September, the security of NATO’s eastern flank as well as the development of military cooperation between the two countries’ armies. On Friday minister Mircea Dusa will visit the EU command and control facility in Mont Valerien.
Suspended on Tuesday due to the strong wind, the 2014 World Rowing Championship competitions were resumed Wednesday on the Bosbaan lake near Amsterdam. Romania’s women’s eight crew has managed to qualify in the final to be held on Sunday. The Romanian athletes ranked 3rd in heat 2, after Canada and Russia. At the current edition of the World Rowing Championship the Romanian Federation expects to obtain a medal, most likely in the eight-crew and double skull competitions in which the Romanians have won the most medals.
France has to speed up structural reforms as soon as possible the European Commission officials said Wednesday after the appointment of a new government headed by the Socialist Manuel Valls. Following the reshuffle, the government no longer includes those Socialist Party members who criticized the French government’s austerity policy. Among those replaced is the former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg whose place was taken by 36 year old Emmanuel Macron, a former banker close to President Francois Hollande and a symbol of the Social Liberal line of the new French government. The current team numbers 33 ministers and state secretaries and has the difficult mission to take the government out of the most serious domestic political crisis of the past years.
The 2nd humanitarian convoy which Russia intends to send to eastern Ukraine will not be the last- said Wednesday the Russian foreign minister, Serghei Lavrov. This statement comes shortly after the Kremlin had pointed out that the humanitarian aid would be transported under the aegis of the Red Cross and in coordination with the Ukrainian authorities. On Friday a first convoy crossed the Russian- Ukrainian border without the authorization of Ukraine and the verification of the Red Cross representatives, which made Kiev denounce an indirect invasion. Also the Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday that the Russian troops that entered Ukraine set up “general headquarters” in the Donetsk separatist region. The fighting between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatist forces in the east of Ukraine have so far killed more than 2,200 people and wounded thousands. Hundreds of thousands of people have left their homes because of the fighting.
