February 23, 2015 UPDATE

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Bogdan Matei, 23.02.2015, 12:15

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Monday reiterated in Paris Bucharest’s commitment to affirming and strengthening francophone values. During his talks with Michaelle Jean, director of the International Organisation of Francophony (the OIF), Aurescu underlined the importance Romania attaches to the consolidation of the regional dimension of francophony recollecting that Bucharest is hosting the OIF regional bureau for Central and Eastern Europe. Bucharest, which played venue for the OIF sommet in 2006, is the only European capital, which has a Francophony Square. The head of the Romanian diplomacy was paying a visit to Paris at the invitation of his French counterpart Laurent Fabius, with whom he talked about the consolidation and diversification of the political and diplomatic dialogue between Romania and France as a reconfirmation of the two countries’ commitments within the Strategic Bilateral Partnership. The Romanian official’s agenda also included talks with the French commissioner for investment Loius Schweitzer.

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday will be paying the first official visit in his new capacity to the neighboring Republic of Moldova, an ex soviet country with a Romanian-speaking majority. High on the Romanian president’s agenda are talks with his counterpart Nicolae Timofti, with the new Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici, and with leaders of the Parliamentary parties. Iohannis is expected to deliver a speech at the University in Chisinau. The Romanian president’s visit to Chisinau had been scheduled earlier, but because the formation of the new executive in that country was delayed, the president decided to postpone his visit and waited for the new government forged by the minority coalition made up of Liberal-Democrats and Democrats and backed by the pro-Russia communists. Before his visit, Iohannis had said that the best alternative for the continuation of Moldova’s European progress would have been for all the pro-European parties, which got the majority of votes in the latest election, to have forged a government — a hint at the Liberals who preferred to remain in the opposition. The president has said that Romania can only express its wishes and do not tell the Republic of Moldova what the latter should do. The Romanian president is expected to pay a formal visit to Berlin later this week. Initially scheduled for February 11th, the visit was also postponed in respect for the funerals of former federal president Richard von Weizsäcker. Iohannis will have talks with his German counterpart Joachim Gauck and with chancellor Angela Merkel. A German ethnic from Sibiu, central Romania, president Iohannis will be visiting Germany for the first time in his new capacity.

The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Monday approved the requests from the National Anticorruption Directorate for launching a penal investigation and the preventive detention of the former MP and minister of the development Elena Udrea who is facing new corruption charges. Mrs. Udrea has been serving a house arrest sentence since last week, after the court replaced the preventive detention sentence with this new measure in another corruption file leveled against her.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has stepped up in the rankings, returning to the 3rd position in world scores made public on Monday, after this past weekend Halep won the Dubai tournament. Leader in the world rankings is American Serena Williams, while Russian Maria Sharapova is the runner-up. The world’s top one hundred tennis players includes other Romanians as well, among them 33rd-placed Irina Begu, Monica Niculescu, currently ranked 62nd, and 94th ranked Alexandra Dulgheru. The latter will be facing China’s Saisai Zheng, (76th-placed according to the WTA), in a confrontation set to secure access to the women’s singles main draw of the WTA tournament in Doha, Qatar, with 731,000 dollars prize money at stake. We recall Halep ranked as number two favorite in the tournament in Doha, which she has also previously won in 2014. However, this year Halep pulled out of competition as she sustained an injury.