October 21, 2015

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Bogdan Matei, 21.10.2015, 12:00

Until October 28th, Romanian navy will be participating
in two multinational drills led by Turkey, concurrently taking place in several
regions of the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmara. The first exercise MARSEC
15 is taking place in eastern Mediterranean, in Turkey’s territorial waters,
coming as a response to the tense situation in the Middle East, where the
clandestine migration has intensified. The military will be carrying out
training missions against clandestine migration, illegal sea trafficking as
well as rescue exercises. The second exercise, NUSRET 15 will be taking place
in the Gulf of Saros in northern Aegean. Mine sweepers and mine hunters, as
well as diving units specialized in mine clearing operations from Bulgaria,
Greece, Romania the United States and Turkey will be participating in the
exercise.

The Prosecutor General’s Office in Bucharest has
announced that Romania’s former president Ion Iliescu has been indicted for
crimes against humanity in a file on the miners’ raid on Bucharest over June 13th
and 15th 1990, which stifled a wide-scale demonstration against the
left-wing government that came to power shortly after the fall of the communist
dictatorship. Virgil Magureanu, head of the Romanian Intelligence Service at
the time, has also been indicted in the same file. Against the backdrop of
violent events in capital Bucharest, which the army had already managed to
contain, Iliescu invoked a coup attempt by the far-right opposition and called
on the population to defend democratic institutions. The raid of the miners,
based in Valea Jiului, central Romania over Bucharest, where they stormed the
University, the headquarters of opposition parties and offices of some
independent newspapers caused four official deaths, hundreds of wounded and
over 1,000 abusive arrests. The European Court of Human Rights last year issued
a decision asking Romania to carry on investigation in the file of the 1990
Miners’ Raid on Bucharest.

Overwhelmed by the situation sparked off by
the massive flow of migrants from Croatia, the authorities in Slovenia have
today called on the European Union for additional financial assistance in order
to contain the phenomenon, France Press reports. Parliament in Slovenia has
granted fresh prerogatives to the armed forces to back police units in
monitoring the 670-kilometer border with Croatia, which is delimiting the
Schengen zone. After Hungary had closed down its borders with Serbia and
Croatia, the migrants have been taking a detour through Slovenia, a two
million-inhabitant country bordering Croatia, Austria, Hungary and Italy. Since
Saturday roughly 19,500 migrants have entered the country. In another
development, the European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker has called
on several European countries, Romania included, to participate on Sunday in an
emergency meeting bringing together heads of state and government for debates
over the refugee issue in the Western Balkans.

A delegation of the International
Monetary Fund presently on a technical mission in Bucharest is holding talks
with deputies of the Budget-Finance Committee. Upon their yesterday’s meeting
with president Klaus Iohannis, the IMF representatives showed reluctance in
approving a flexible-type loan agreement, after the latest precautionary agreement
expired last month, without a favourable assessment, the Romanian presidency
has announced. The IMF delegation has also held talks with Prime Minister
Victor Ponta, who has mentioned the positive budget adjustment due to be
approved by the government on Friday, underlining that Romania will observe the
target deficit of 1.86% approved by Parliament.

Russia and the United States on Tuesday
signed a memorandum of cooperation in order to avoid incidents in Syria’s
airspace, the Russian Foreign Ministry has announced. The document provides
special rules for the flight crews operating in Syria and establishes
communication lines between the regional command centers of the two countries.
The US is leading a coalition, which has been conducting air strikes against
the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq for more than a year. Russia, a supporter
of Bashar al-Assad regime, has been launching air strikes in Syria since late
September, but Washington and NATO say the Russian strikes are targeting
positions of the anti-government fighters backed by the West. On a visit to
Russia on Tuesday Bashar al-Assad thanked Russian president Vladimir Putin for
his support in the Syrian conflict saying that without the Russian military
intervention in Syria, terrorism would have gained ground in the region. This
is Assad’s first visit abroad since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in
2011, whose death toll stands at 250 thousand, according to France Press.

The pro-Russian
socialist opposition in the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a
Romanian-speaking majority has tabled a no-confidence vote against the
pro-European government. The communist deputies announced they would back the
socialists’ move but Liberal-Democratic Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet has accused
the left opposition that by this move they are trying to destabilize the
Republic and highjack its European integration.

Romania’s Foreign Affairs
Minister Bogan Aurescu in Bucharest today will be holding talks with his Qatari
counterpart Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, who is currently on an official
visit to Romania, occasioned by the 25th anniversary of bilateral
relations. High on the agenda of the two high-ranking officials is the
bilateral political and sectoral cooperation, the latest developments in the
Middle East the situation in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, the Israeli-Palestinian
file and the effort to fight terrorism. During the visit, an agreement will be
signed sealing the cooperation in the judicial sector between the countries’
justice ministries.