July 21, 2024 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 21.07.2024, 20:00
Olympics – The delegation of Romania’s Olympic Team that will participate in the 2024 Olympic Games left on Sunday with a TAROM (national airline) charter flight to Paris, aboard a Boeing aircraft recently renamed ‘Nadia Comăneci’, AGERPRES reports. The aircraft was renamed specifically for this purpose, following the agreement received from the great Romanian gymnast, winner of five gold medals at the Olympic Games. Romania’s Olympic team – Team Romania is made up of 107 athletes who will compete in 18 different sports disciplines at the Olympic Games. ‘The road to the Paris Olympic Games means getting closer to the Olympic dream. Our team is ready and is looking forward to entering the Olympic arena. We are glad that we embarked on our trip together with ‘Nadia Comăneci’, a symbol of world sports, and I am convinced that this association with the TAROM aircraft will be a good omen for our athletes. In Paris, Team Romania will be Romania in front of the world”, said Mihai Covaliu, the president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee.
Violence – Related to the incidents produced, at the end of the week, in Leeds, the United Kingdom, the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Romania’s diplomatic mission and the Consulate General in Manchester continued communication with the family of the Romanian citizens affected by the authorities’ measures to take over their minor children and with the representatives the community and of the religious denominations, while also continuing the dialogue with the British local authorities. The latter informed, on Sunday, about the detention of nine Romanian citizens involved in the incidents of the evening of July 18. Later, eight of them were released. The Romanian Foreign Ministry explains that, at this moment, an investigation by the local police authorities is underway, and it is essential to clarify all aspects regarding the incident. The Consulate General in Manchester gives priority attention to the situation in Leeds and is prepared to continue providing consular assistance, according to the competences held, in compliance with the British legislation in force. Romanians and members of other communities in Leeds would have been involved in violent incidents, triggered by the attempt of the authorities for the protection of children in Leeds to take several Romanian minors into the care of the state, after abuses had been reported to them.
Olympiad – Six high school students from Romania won medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad, according to an Education Ministry press release. They won one gold medal, four silver and one bronze medal. All six students are from Bucharest. The 65th edition of the Olympiad took place in Bath, Great Britain.
Brussels – The EU foreign ministers are meeting, on Monday, in Brussels, for the first time since the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visits to Ukraine, Russia, China and the United States, and the meeting is expected to discuss the reaction of the community block to this tour, which did not have the EU approval, EFE reported on Sunday. All EU countries, except Slovakia, and the EU institutions have condemned Orban’s meetings with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the former US President and the Republican presidential candidate in the November 5 election, Donald Trump, insisting that he has no mandate to speak on behalf of the community bloc about the war in Ukraine. The 27 members are divided on how to show their discontent: they do not agree on whether they should boycott the informal meetings held during Hungary’s six-month presidency of the EU Council, by sending to these meetings some lower-ranking officials instead of the line ministers. The EU countries’ foreign ministers will talk about military support for Ukraine, especially in terms of anti-aircraft defense, about the war in Gaza and its possible extension to the rest of the Middle East.
Talks – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Luminiţa Odobescu, talked on the phone with her Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, about concrete ways to further increase economic and sectoral cooperation, especially in areas of priority mutual interest, such as tourism, agriculture, trade and investments, labor and energy. According to the Foreign Ministry, the two high officials discussed the deep bilateral relations that the two countries have built over time, with over 115 years of official diplomatic interactions. The two ministers also had an exchange of opinions on security developments in the immediate vicinity of the two countries. The increasingly worrying developments in the Middle East were also reviewed. The Romanian FM expressed appreciation for Egypt’s special role in identifying solutions to the current regional crisis. (LS)
