October 6, 2016 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 06.10.2016, 12:30

CONTRIBUTION Romania is a major contributor to the new European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the country’s Interior Minister Dragos Tudorache said on Thursday after having participated in the inauguration of this body in Bulgaria. According to Tudorache, the new aency will contribute to the consolidation of the EU borders, assisting the member states in implementing border security and migration management. The Romanian official has announced that by the end of the year, Romania will have contributed 75 border policemen to the agency. According to Tudorache, 400 Romanian policemen, four patrol vessels and ten crews have so far participated in 14 Frontex missions. On this occasion the Romanian Interior Minister held talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Rumiana Basharova about the assistance Bucharest would be granting to Bulgaria in dealing with refugee inflows as well as on the visa waiver for the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens who travel to Canada.

ENDORSEMENT Portuguese Antonio Guterres 67 on Thursday got endorsement from all the 15 members of the UN Security Council to become the future UN Secretary General. Diplomat and politician Antonio Guterres had headed the UN Refugee Agency until December. After the Security Council vote the candidacy will have to be approved by the members of the UN General Assembly, which boasts representatives from 193 countries and territories. The former Portuguese Prime Minister is to replace South Korean Ban Ki-Moon, whose second term in office is to end on December 31st.

COOPERATION Romania’s Defence Minister Mihnea Motoc and his Dutch counterpart Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert signed in Bucharest on Thursday a letter of intention on developing bilateral military cooperation. According to Motoc, the meeting came against the background of stepped up cooperation between allied forces for special operations in cyber defence and the technical-military field. The two officials have also tackled the participation of Dutch troops in the multinational NATO brigade to be stationed in Romania. Germany has announced its participation with chief of staff officers, Bulgaria with 400 soldiers and Poland with nearly 120 soldiers. Attending a Security Forum in Bucharest, the Dutch Defence Minister said that at present Europe is less safer and that additional measures are needed including a consistant rotating NATO presence in the Black Sea.

TENNIS The world’s fifth tennis player Romanian Simona Halep was eliminated on Thursday by Chinese Shuai Zhang in the eighth finals of the Beijing tournament with total prizes of 5.5 million dollars. It is the second match Halep has lost to the Chinese challenger this season, after the one in Australian Open. In the quarters Zhang will be taking on British Johanna Konta, who comes after a win against Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.