January 16, 2018
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 16.01.2018, 13:35
STATE VISIT – Romanias president Klaus Iohannis is today receiving the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, who is on a formal visit to Bucharest, accompanied by a delegation of business people. According to the Presidential Administration, the Japanese Prime Minister will hold talks with various officials, will give statements to the press and will attend a state dinner given in his honour by President Iohannis. This is the first visit to Romania by a Japanese Prime Minister and it takes place against the background of Romania and Japan celebrating five years since the signing of the renewed partnership agreement between the two countries. Romania is one leg of the diplomatic tour that Abe is taking of central and eastern Europe, which also includes Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria and Serbia. Japan is thus trying to get support for its firm stand regarding the communist regime in North Korea.
ROMANIAN PREMIER – The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has designated the Defence Minister Mihai Fifor as interim prime-minister, following the resignation of Mihai Tudose. The president has also announced that on Wednesday he will start consultations with the parliamentary parties on the nomination of a new prime-minister. He has voiced concern that within a year since the parliamentary elections Romania has already had two failing Social Democratic governments. In parallel, the National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party has gathered again to make a proposal for the office of prime-minister. Tudose announced his resignation last night, after the Social Democratic leaders withdrew their political support.
NATO – A delegation of the General Staff of the Romanian Armed Forces, headed by general Nicolae Ciuca, is attending in Brussels the NATO Military Committee Conference, attended by the NATO chiefs of staff. The agenda of the meeting includes topics such as challenges to security on NATOs southern flank and the contribution of the Alliance to stabilizing the region, the next steps in the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, NATOs role in providing assistance for security reform in Iraq and the training of the Iraqi forces in 2018. Also, the participants will discuss proposals regarding means of adapting NATOs command structure, military recommendations and ways of harmonizing them with the political recommendations of the North Atlantic Council.
ECHR – The Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader is holding talks in Strasbourg today with the President of the European Court of Human Rights Guido Raimondi about the measures taken by the Bucharest authorities regarding conditions in penitentiaries. Recently, Tudose has stated that the Memorandum for the implementation of the pilot judgment of the Court will be submitted to Government for approval, and most likely on January 22nd the memorandum will reach the Court. January 25th is the deadline on which Romania is supposed to present the roadmap regarding prison conditions in Romania. In April, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that detention conditions in Romanian penitentiaries ran counter to the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and revealed structural dysfunctionalities that required urgent measures to be implemented by the state.
TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number one in the WTA rankings, has today qualified for the second round of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, defeating the Australian Destanee Aiava 7-6, 6-1. In the second round, Halep, who is the tournaments first seed, will play against Eugenie Bouchard of Canada. Halep is the third qualified Romanian player, after Irina Begu and Sorana Carstea. Also today, the Romanian Ana Bogdan has defeated in two sets the French Kristina Mladenovici.
(translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)
