September 27, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 27.09.2016, 12:30
F – 16 Romania is to receive from Portugal on Wednesday the first batch of six F-16 fighter jets, Defence Minister Mihnea Motoc said in Bucharest on Tuesday. Last week Motoc met the Portuguese ambassador Joao-Bernardo Weinstein to whom he thanked for the contribution of the Portuguese Air force experts to the training of the technical personnel in charge of maintaining the jets in Romania. We recall that Romania has bought from Portugal 12 upgraded F-16 fighters compatible with those used by the other NATO countries. The contract was signed three years ago and the Romanian Army shelled out about 630 million euros.
NATIONAL DEFENCE Romanias Supreme Defence Council (CSAT), chaired by President Klaus Iohannis, convened in Bucharest on Tuesday. The agenda of the meeting covered such topics as the implementation of the decisions made at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, the latest developments in the Middle East and the implications for Romania as well as the main measures needed to eliminate threats to national security caused by a massive flow of migrants and to maintain the public order and safety climate. Other topics on the agenda are the situation of those active in the defence industry, the evaluation of cyber security in public institutions in Romania, setting up and rendering operational the multinational brigade for developing and consolidating essential elements of the advanced allied presence as well as the state of the public healthcare system in Romania.A decision was made during the session that the second infantry brigade ‘Rovine based in Craiova, southern Romania become a multinational brigade, while Healthcare Minister Vlad Voiculescu briefed the participants on the public healthcare system.
ROMANIAN DIASPORA Romania has been included among the top 20 countries with the largest Diaspora, with some 3.4 million Romanian citizens living in a foreign country, a UN report based on figures released in 2015 shows. According to the UN World Migration Report, this is the second largest increase in a countrys Diaspora, 7.3% per year, and the highest increase in the number of migrants from a country, which hasnt faced war. Ranking first in terms of this increase is Syria, with 13.1%, and ranking third is Poland with 5.1%. At European level, it is for the first time that Romania has gone up to the 4th position, in terms of the total number of citizens who live abroad, following the UK, Poland and Germany. The Romanian Diaspora accounts for 17% of Romanias population, which stands at approximately 20 million people, according to the latest census, carried out in 2014.
RADIRO RadiRo Festival, organised by Radio Romania, continued on Tuesday with a concert given by the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, which performed pieces by Rachmaninoff and Schumann. The festival, staged by Radio Romania, comes to an end on Saturday, October 1st, and the concerts will also be aired live in the European Broadcasting Union network and the Asia-Pacific platform of public and private radio broadcasters. Now in its third edition, RadiRo is the only big European festival devoted exclusively to radio orchestras.