February 22, 2015 UPDATE
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Mihai Pelin, 22.02.2015, 12:15
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis will be paying a formal visit to Ukraine on March 17th for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko. The announcement was made on Sunday when Ukraine saw a series of events aimed at marking a year since the pro-European revolution, which led to the ousting of pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych. Numerous foreign leaders including the European Council president Donald Tusk as well as thousands of people took to the Independence Square in Kiev to mark a year since the bloody events in Ukraine. In another development, three people have been killed in the explosion of a bomb during a rally in Harkov. We recall that the political crisis in Ukraine deepened in November 2013 and the protests in the Independence Square, when more than 100 people were killed, gained momentum in February last year forcing Yanukovych to flee the country. The annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia that followed shortly sparked off a conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has so far caused the death of more than 57 hundred people.
US military operation Atlantic Resolve will be extended to Romania and Bulgaria at the end of March against the background of mounting tension in the region, Ben Hodges, commander of the US forces in Europe, has announced. Launched in April last year in the Baltic states and Poland, the operation is aimed at proving NATO’s commitment to a region, which is presently facing new challenges in terms of security. The inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria also involves a bigger military participation in the Atlantic Resolve operation, from 900 strong at present up to 19 hundred. The USA presently boasts 29 thousand soldiers stationed in Germany, Italy and Belgium, but according to press agencies, Washington has recently beefed up its presence in Europe, to convey a clear message to Russia as well as to its NATO partners.
The head of the Romanian diplomacy Bogdan Aurescu will be paying a visit to Paris on Monday. According to Foreign Ministry sources in Bucharest, high on the agenda are talks with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius. The Romanian Foreign Minister’s visit will be focusing on ways of diversifying the political and diplomatic dialogue between Romania and France as well as on reiterating the two countries’ commitment within the Strategic Bilateral Partnership and its roadmap. Aurescu is also expected to hold talks with Michaelle Jean, secretary general of the International Organisation of Francophony as well as the French Commissioner for investment Louis Schweitzer. The talks with the French officials will be focusing on bilateral cooperation as well as on topical issues on the European and international agendas, with emphasis on the situation in Ukraine and the EU-integration progress made by Romania’s neighbor, the Republic of Moldova.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has described as a success Greece’s agreement with its eurozone partners on the extension of its bailout plan. Tsipras is presently holding talks with his cabinet on a list of structural reforms including measures against tax evasion, corruption and ways of streamlining public administration, which he has to present to the eurozone partners for approval on Monday. The agreement provides for the extension of Greece’s bailout plan for another four months. In exchange, the government in Athens has pledged to avoid any unilateral actions, which could harm stability and accepted monitoring from its international lenders. Greece’s foreign debt stands at 315 billion euros accounting for 175% of the country’s GDP.
Romania assures 4% of the EU’s entire agricultural production, ranking eighth after France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Poland, whose farming sectors produce over 10 billion euros annually. According to data released by the EU Statistics Institute Eurostat, three quarters of Romania’s agricultural output account for vegetables, whereas at EU level, crops of cereals, fruit and vegetables stand at only a little over 50%. In terms of dairy and meat production, Romania is below the European average.
