August 22, 2017 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 22.08.2017, 20:13
TALKS The prospects of Romanian-French industrial cooperation in the field of defence and the programmes of equipping the Romanian Armed Forces were the main topics the Romanian Minister of Defence Adrian Tutuianu discussed by phone with his French counterpart Florence Parly. According to a communiqué of the Romanian Ministry of Defence the two officials have underlined the excellent relations of cooperation between the two armies developed under the strategic partnership between Romania and France. Programmes aimed at equipping Romania’s armed forces were also discussed. Also on Tuesday Romania’s Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu met the ambassador of Canada to Romania, Kevin Hamilton. The talks focused on the multinational brigade in Romania. Minister Tutuianu also hailed the arrival in Romania of the four Hornet jet fighters belonging to the Royal Canadian Air Force, which will do air policing together with their Romanian counterparts as part of the NATO plan to strengthen the Alliance’s eastern flank.
VISIT The Romanian authorities are satisfied with the way in which the rights of Romanian minorities in neighboring Ukraine are observed, Romania’s Minister for the Romanians Abroad, Andreea Păstârnac said in Kiev on Tuesday. The statement was made during the talks the Romanian official held with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Pavlo Klimkin. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the two officials agreed that the Romanian minority in Ukraine and the Ukrainian minority in Romania had to remain a key-element of bilateral cooperation. Another topic on the agenda of talks was the visit the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is going to pay to Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry officials said. During the meeting between Pastarnac and the Ukrainian minister of Culture, Evghenii Nasciuk, the need for signing a protocol between the field institutions in Romania and Ukraine for developing joint cultural projects, was highlighted. At the meeting the Romanian official had with the Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science Lilia Grinevici, the participants agreed to make the most of the opportunity of exchanging expertise between the students and the teachers of the two countries.
MEDAL Romanian gymnast Larisa Iordache won gold on Tuesday in the individual all round event of the gymnastics competition of the 29th Summer University Games held in Taipei, Taiwan. Iordache 21, who carried the Romanian flag at the opening ceremony of the competition in Taipei, has won the first medal for the Romanian delegation. On Wednesday she will compete in three apparatuses finals: the beam, uneven bars and floor. Romanian male gymnast Andrei Muntean will represent Romania in the vault finals on Wednesday.
NO PULL OUT NATO, which intervened in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks of 2001 upon the request of the US, will never allow this country to ‘become again a sanctuary for terrorists’ said Tuesday the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. At the same time, the leader in Kabul, Ashraf Ghani hailed the US’s ‘sustainable commitment’ in Afghanistan. The statements follow the warning launched Monday evening by US President Donald Trump that a hasty withdrawal of personnel from Afghanistan would leave a power vacuum that could be filled by terrorists. President Trump admitted that, despite his election campaign promise to pull out the American troops from Afghanistan, he subsequently decided to maintain them there, so as to avoid the errors made in Iraq. Washington also announced its intention to increase the number of American troops in Afghanistan. At present, there are almost 8,400 American soldiers deployed in Afghanistan as part of an international force numbering a total of 13,500 soldiers. Romania has sent more than 600 soldiers to Afghanistan.
