8 March, 2018

President Klaus Iohannis meets visiting Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic./ International Womens Day is celebrated on the 8th of March.

Newsroom, 08.03.2018, 13:41

Serbia-Romania. The relationship between Romania and
Serbia is very good and will be even better, said Romania’s president Klaus
Iohannis on Thursday after talks with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic. Serbia is our main partner in the Western
Balkans, Iohannis also said, adding that the ethnic Romanians in Serbia and the
ethnic Serbians in Romania have an important role to play in consolidating the
bridge between the two countries. Klaus Iohannis also said that a solution to
the Kosovo problem would mean a huge step forward on the European path for the
entire Western Balkans. We recall that Romania is one of the five EU member
states yet to recognise Kosovo’s independence, a former Serbian province with a
majority ethnic Albanian population. The Serbian president said his country is
grateful for the support given by Romania on its path to Europe and that it is open
to cooperation in different areas.

Visit Croatia. Romania’s foreign minister Teodor
Melescanu has begun a 2-day official trip to Croatia. Today, he is attending
the opening of Romania’s honorary consulate in Split and is having talks with
the local authorities and the president of the Croatian Economic Chamber Luka Burilovic. Tomorrow, Melescanu is expected to meet
Croatia’s president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, prime minister Andrej Plenkovic
and other officials. His agenda also includes a visit to the Romanian Orthodox
Church in Zagreb and talks with representatives of the Association of Romanians
in Croatia. A collaboration protocol is to be signed during his trip between
the Romanian and the Croatian foreign ministries.

EU. The Romanian interior minister Carmen Dan
is attending, on Thursday and Friday, a meeting of the EU Justice and Internal
Affairs Council in Brussels. Talks focus, among others, on cooperation as part
of the Security and Common Defence Policy missions and operations and the European
agencies in the area of internal affairs. Carmen Dan will call for
consolidating coordination between the EU’s internal and external security. She
will also reiterate Romania’s firm support for strengthening cooperation to
combat organised crime, terrorism and extremism, tightening border security and
achieving the efficient management of migration in the EU neighbourhood.

International Women’s Day. More than 50 countries around the world celebrate
International Women’s Day in recognition of women’s contribution to the
development of society. The International Women’s Day first reflected the fight
of working women to obtain certain rights, and then the celebration of Mother’s
Day in the former Soviet bloc. Today, it is an opportunity to discuss women’s
role in society. Since 1975, International Women’s Day has been celebrated on
the 8th of March, and through a resolution adopted two years later,
the UN General Assembly recognised women’s role in the peace and development
efforts and called for a halt to discrimination and for supporting women’s
participation in the life of society.

Flu. The flu
death toll has reached 87 in Romania, according to the health ministry’s Centre
for the Supervision and Control of Communicable Diseases. The latest victim is
an 87-year-old woman who was suffering from other diseases and who had not
received flu vaccination. Health minister Sorina Pintea says there are no plans
to declare a flu epidemic at this stage.

Brexit. The Romanian minister delegate for European
affairs Victor Negrescu on Wednesday had talks with the UK Brexit minister
David Davis as part of Davis’ EU tour ahead of the upcoming European Council
meeting. The Romanian foreign ministry has said in a press release that both
parties expressed their wish for the withdrawal agreement to be established as
soon as possible to allow for the start of talks on future relations. The talks
also highlighted the need for deeper cooperation between the European Union and
the UK in order to reflect their close historical links and the common values.
The Romanian minister reiterated his country’s priority to protect the rights
of the Romanians living, working and studying in the UK.

Tennis. The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu
got off to a good start at the WTA tournament in Indian Wells, in the US, worth
8.6 million dollars in prize money. Begu defeated Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic in three sets in the opening round and will next
play 5th seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the second
round. Four other Romanian players are in competition in the singles matches.
First seed Simona Halep, who goes straight into the second round, faces the
Czech player Kristyna Pliskova. In their first round matches on Thursday,
qualifier Monica Niculescu plays Sorana Cirstea, while Mihaela Buzarnescu faces
the American player Jennifer Brady. Halep won the title in Indian Wells in
2015.