March 9, 2014 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news.

Bogdan Matei, 09.03.2014, 12:10

VISIT– Romanian foreign minister Titus Corlatean on Monday will pay a working visit to neighbouring Ukraine, at the invitation of his counterpart, Andriy Deschitsa. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the visit is part of the sustained efforts made by Romania, both within the European and Euro-Atlantic structures as well as at bilateral level, meant to find a peaceful solution, through dialogue, to the deep crisis in Ukraine. The visit is paid against the backdrop of what the Romanian diplomacy calls “the escalation of tensions over the Crimea peninsula, an integral part of independent and sovereign Ukraine”. The agenda of the talks between Corlatean and Deschitsa also includes issues of bilateral interest, among which the situation of the Romanian community in Ukraine, made up of over 400,000 people.

UKRAINE-Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the pro-Russian separatist authorities of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea are legitimate. During phone talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, Putin said the measures taken by the Crimean leaders are based on international law. The pro-Russian militias further block the access to the peninsula of the OSCE military observers, whose role is to collect information on the situation in the field. According to Ukrainian defence minister, Igor Teniuh, the number of Russian troops deployed in Crimea has exceeded significantly the maxim allowed figures stipulated by bilateral agreements. Also on Sunday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said his country will not cede a centimetre of its territory to Russia. NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has said the North-Atlantic Alliance is on Kiev’s side and he has called on Moscow to comply with its international commitments. Clashes were reported on Sunday both in Crimea and in the Russian speaking regions in eastern Ukraine, between Ukrainian nationalist protesters, who on Sunday celebrated the 200th birthday anniversary of the Ukrainian national poet Taras Sevcenko, and pro-Russian militants, who are hostile to the new West-leaning power in Kiev.

USS TRUXTUN– The USS Truxtun is in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta until Tuesday, on a routine mission in the area. The ship is participating in joint drills with the military forces of Romania and Bulgaria, according to a timetable established last year. The crew will also exchange information with the Romanian side. USS Truxtun is a destroyer equipped with several types of missiles, such as ground-air, anti-ballistic, anti-submarine and Tomahawk cruise missiles. It can also carry two fighter helicopters onboard. The ship was launched in 2007 and it has been serving the US navy since 2009.

DIPLOMACY- The United States will appoint a new ambassador to Bucharest in 2014, former ambassador to Bucharest, Mark Gitenstein, said in an interview on a private Romanian TV channel. He has termed as embarrassing the fact that Washington hasn’t appointed an ambassador to Romania yet and said the US is making these appointments following a selection process, which has turned out not to be functional. In another move, Gitenstein has said that from an economic point of view, Romania fares better than any other country in the area, because it has implemented many of the reforms agreed upon with the IMF. The American diplomat has substantiated his point of view by saying that Romania’s fiscal situation is rather good, as the level of debt is low and the increase of the GDP is one of the biggest across the EU. He has said, however, that there are reasons for which foreign investors are reticent about coming to Romania, mainly the fact that laws and regulations in the field are being changed too often.

VISIT– The EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, will pay a visit to Bucharest as of Monday. The visit is designed to assess the Romanian young people’s education and employment prospects. The European official will launch Erasmus+, the new EU financing program for education, training, youth and sports. The program offers scholarships to 120,000 young Romanians, to study, accumulate professional experience or to take part in volunteering actions abroad in the following seven years. Romania will receive over 50 million Euros in 2014, under the Erasmus+ program, which represents an 11 % increase as compared to last year’s level of funding.

SPORTS– Romania’s national rugby team is now ranking first in the European Nations’ Cup, after winning 29-10 to Belgium on home soil, in Constanta, on Saturday. Romania ranks first with 38 points, followed by Georgia with 37 points. Both teams have qualified directly to the World Cup due in Great Britain, next year. In order to win the current edition of the European Nations’ Cup, the Romanian rugby players should end the match in Tbilisi in a draw, or win it.