September 6, 2019 UPDATE

Romanian Foreign Minister Manescu had a meeting with UK Ambassador Andrew Noble

Newsroom, 06.09.2019, 19:59

MEETING The Romanian Foreign Minister Ramona-Nicole Manescu had a meeting on Friday with the Ambassador of the UK to Bucharest, Andrew Noble. The talks focused on the Romanian-British cooperation in the ensuing period, in the context of Britains withdrawal from the EU. Ramona Manescu reconfirmed Romanias interest in an orderly exit of the UK, and emphasised the special attention paid by Bucharest to protecting the rights of the Romanian citizens living in Britain. Over 140,000 Romanians have applied for the UK settled status, a system created in order to protect the rights of the EU citizens living in Britain post-Brexit, the British Embassy in Romania announced in a Facebook post on Friday. According to the latest estimates, the Romanian community in Britain is about half a million people.

COMMEMORATION Tribute was paid on Friday, in all military units in Romania and the theatres of operation, to the Romanian military killed in an attack in Kabul on Thursday and claimed by the Taliban. On Monday night, another Romanian national, who was part of the security staff of the Romanian diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, was killed in a terrorist attack that targeted a compound hosting embassy headquarters, including that of Romania. Another Romanian was wounded in this attack, also claimed by the Taliban, and later transferred to Europe for medical assistance. The building hosting the embassy was severely damaged, its staff being for the time being hosted by a NATO military base. In Bucharest, president Klaus Iohannis and PM Viorica Dancila have sent their condolences in the aftermath of the two attacks and have reiterated Romania’s support for the fight against terrorism. A crisis cell was established at the foreign ministry. Almost 30 Romanian soldiers have died since 2003 in Afghanistan, where Romania has deployed 762 military as part of the NATO Resolute Support mission.

DIASPORA Bucharest is hosting on Saturday and Sunday the Annual Conference of the Romanian World Council, on topics concerning the Romanian communities abroad. The Commission for Romanian communities abroad and the Romanian World Council organise on Saturday a conference on “The Diaspora, the Romanians in historic communities and the goal of ReUnion. Also in Bucharest, the Forum of the Romanians abroad takes place until Sunday, bringing together over 120 representatives of the Romanian diaspora. The participants take part in working sessions, workshops and debates, together with officials for several public institutions. The topics approached include Romanian tuition in schools, investments and opportunities to return to Romania, and voting abroad.

FESTIVAL This weekend 16 concerts and recitals are scheduled to take place as part of the George Enescu International Festival, in Bucharest and other cities in the country and abroad, such as Florence (Italy) and Toronto (Canada). The Festival is an opportunity for music lovers to listen to performances by musicians from around the world. Radio Romania has been a co-producer of the Festival ever since its first edition, in 1958. This year, most concerts in the Festival can be listened to live on Radio Romania Music, and the Radio Broadcasting Corporations Concert Hall will also host some of the performances.

TENNIS The 19-year-old Canadian player of Romanian origin Bianca Andreescu will be facing Serena Williams in the women’s final at the US Open. Andreescu, who was yet to go past the second round in a Grand Slam, on Thursday defeated Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, while Serena Williams made it to her tenth US Open final after defeating Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

TABLE TENNIS The Romanian women’s table tennis team Friday advanced to the semi-finals of the European Table Tennis Championships in Nantes, France, after defeating the host team 3-nil in the quarterfinals. On Saturday Romania takes on Poland, which outperformed the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)