May 13, 2018 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 13.05.2018, 19:12

VISIT Romania’s Prime
Minister Viorica Dancila on Sunday paid a visit to the Academia di Romania in
Rome, the oldest Romanian cultural institution abroad, which this year
celebrates 96 years of existence. Romanians this year mark a century since the
foundation of the Romanian modern state (1918 – 2018). According to a
government communiqué released on Sunday, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila has also talked on the phone
with His Grace Siluan, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop to Italy, who is currently
on a visit to Paris to participate in the Congress of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Western and Southern Europe. The Romanian Prime
Minister has highlighted aspects related to her visit to the Holy See and the
excellent bilateral relations at political, cultural and educational levels.
Viorica Dancila has appreciated the support offered by the Romanian Orthodox
Church to the communities in the Diaspora, mainly in Italy, and has mentioned
the importance the church has in the life of the Romanians living abroad. The
Romanian Prime Minister has also underlined the importance the Romanian
authorities attach to the observation of the rights of the Romanian communities
and the role of religious denominations in keeping spiritual and linguistic
identities.

TALKS Ludovic Orban,
president of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Romania’s main opposition party,
is expected to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday as part of a
three-day visit a delegation of Romanian Liberals is paying to Germany. Talks
have been scheduled with representatives of the federal government on energy
issues, with representatives of the business environment, MPs from the
Christian Democratic Union and with representatives of the Romanian community
in Germany. According to the PNL press office, the visit is the result of the
very good cooperation the Romanian Liberals have inside the European People’s
Party with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the visit comes in
response to an invitation from Konrad-Adenauer Foundation.

HANDBALL Romania’s
champions in women’s handball CSM Bucharest have become the bronze medalists
in the Champions League after a 31-30 win in Budapest on Sunday against Russian
side Rostov Don. CSM lost the semifinals on Saturday to Hungarian side Gyor 26-20.
This has been CSM’s second bronze medal in a row. We recall that in 2016 CSM
was the competition’s gold medalist.

DRILL Resolute Castle 2018 is a multinational
drill that has kicked off at the shooting range in Cincu, central Romania. The
six-month exercise has brought together troops from Romania’s Ground Forces and
the South Carolina National Guard. The US and Romanian troops will get involved
in infrastructure projects aimed at modernizing the training facilities in the
Cincu shooting range. Resolute Castle 2018 is an exercise focusing on
streamlining the training centers in Poland and Romania allowing the US troops
to quickly mobilize and hold exercises jointly with their multinational
partners in order to prove their deterrence capability in a complete security
environment.

TENNIS Several Romanian
players are on the main draw of the tennis tournament in Rome with 3.3 million
dollars in prize money, a competition that is to kick off on Monday. The
world’s number one Simona Halep will play directly in the competition’s second
round against the winner of the game pitching Victoria Azarenka of Belarus
against Naomi Osaka of Japan. Mihaela Buzarnescu will be playing Chinese Shuai
Zhang whereas Irina Begu will be up against Shuai Peng also from China. Sorana
Carstea will play against a challenger coming from the qualifying rounds where
Monica Niculescu of Romania will be meeting Russian Natalia Vikhlyantseva. In
the last year’s edition Halep lost the finals to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. The
tennis competition in Rome is the last before the Roland Garros Grand Slam
tournament in Paris.

(translated by bill)