May 20th UPDATE
A roundup of Romanian and international news
România Internațional, 20.05.2014, 12:17
The American vice president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday started a 2-day official visit to Romania. He conveyed a message on behalf of President Barack Obama according to which it is a sacred obligation of America to stand by Romania’s and NATO’s side and Romania could count on the US. In a speech delivered at an air base in Bucharest before 100 Romanian and American soldiers, he said that the aggression in Crimea showed the NATO allies that they should cooperate. Europe’s borders, the American vice president added, should not be changed again by the use of weapons, that is why he condemns Crimea’s annexation by Russia. In turn, the Romanian defense minister, Mircea Dusa, underlined that the US was Romania’s most important ally, and reminded of the Romanian government’s decision to increase the budget contribution for defense at 2% by 2016. The American official’s agenda also includes a meeting with the Romanian president Traian Basescu and the PM Victor Ponta on Wednesday. The American vice president’s visit to Bucharest follows last week’s visit paid to Romania by the NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the CIA deputy director Avril Haines. The head of the Pentagon, Chuck Hagel, is expected to Bucharest in the coming period.
According to a latest flood victim toll made public by the authorities in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the countries worst hit by the most devastating floods of the past century, at least 47 people have died, more than 1.6 million people have been affected while material damage is estimated at 10 billion euros. The Serbian authorities fear that a new rise in the water level will endanger other towns and cities and a power plant that accounts for half of the national electricity consumption. The Bosnian authorities say the effects of flooding are comparable with those of the 1992-1995 war. At present a quarter of Bosnia’s 4 million inhabitants do not have drinking water and over 100 thousand houses have been destroyed. Many states, including Romania, have offered to help the flood victims of the two countries. The Romanian hydrologists have issued orange and yellow code alerts for flooding in several areas near the Danube valid until May 26th. Experts estimate that the high flood on the Danube caused by the torrential rainfalls in the Western Balkans could reach Romania around May 25th.
On May 20th Romania marked 100 years since the birth of the great Romanian politician Corneliu Coposu who died in 1995 at the age of 81. After the fall of the Communist regime, Corneliu Coposu had a great contribution to the rebirth of the National Peasant’s Party, which was considered, alongside the National Liberal Party, one of Romania’s historical parties. In the early 1990s Corneliu Coposu, a staunch supporter of the monarchy, pleaded for the removal of the former Communist activists from the new state structures and for Romania’s joining the western organizations. For his entire political activity and the almost 20 years of suffering in the Communist prisons, Corneliu Coposu was honored with France’s highest decoration of Officer of the Légion dHonneur in 1995.
Romania will not conclude a new loan agreement with the IMF, the European Commission and the World Bank after 2015, said the Romanian minister delegate for budget, Liviu Voinea. He pointed out that in this way Romania would show that its economy became consolidated. The latest loan agreement Romania has concluded with the aforementioned bodies is a precautionary-type agreement worth 4 billion euros. In the past 4 years Romania has successfully concluded another 2 loan agreements with the IMF, the EU and the WB worth 20 billion euros and 5 billion euros respectively.
The Romanian President, Traian Basescu, says the situation in Ukraine is complicated and the conflict risks being extended to Odessa as well, which could affect the situation of the separatist region of Transdniester in the east of the Republic of Moldova. He made this declaration in Bucharest at the joint press conference with the Czech President Miloş Zeman. Referring to the situation in Ukraine and the upcoming presidential election there, the Czech President said it was essential that the early presidential election due on Sunday should also take place in the east of that country. The Czech president also said that the absence of the Russian-speaking population from the vote would be a mistake and called on the Ukrainian citizens in the east of Ukraine to go to the polls.
A freight train belonging to a Ukrainian company that was transporting Renault spare parts from Romania to Moscow, on Tuesday hit a passenger train that was running from Moscow to Chisinau, in the Republic of Moldova. At least 6 people have died, among whom Moldovan citizens, and tens have been injured. The accident occurred at 11:38, Moscow time, near the Russian capital. According to hospital sources, 5 of the dead people are Moldovan citizens.
