January 31, 2015
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Roxana Vasile, 31.01.2015, 13:52
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis yesterday went to the Combat Centre of the Land Forces in Cincu, central Romania, to watch the training of the 33rd Mountain Corps Battalion, which is to be deployed to Afghanistan. The Romanian troops are to participate in the Resolute Support mission. For six months the 420 soldiers will be stationed in Kandahar as a protection unit to ensure the security of the military compound at the same time offering conselling for the Afghan forces. This is the unit’s fifth participation in operation theatres.
Former Romanian economy minister, Democrat-Liberal Adriean Videanu, has today stepped down from the position of president of the Democratic-Liberal Party and also from the position of head of the Bucharest branch of the new National-Liberal Party. Adriean Videanu, who has also had his party membership suspended, has resigned after the High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest decided his 30-day preventive arrest in a corruption file. Other former high officials have been detained in the same file, such as the former head of the Direction for the Investigation of Organized Crimes and Terrorism, DIICOT, Alina Bica, and her former advisor Florentin Mihailescu, businessman Dorin Cocos and his son Alin. Among the charges they are facing are bribery, abuse in office, influence peddling and abetment in crime. Both Alina Bica and Dorin Cocos are already serving preventive arrest sentences in other files.
Romania is one of the six countries in eastern Europe, in which NATO is going to deploy small units — sources with the North Atlantic Alliance announced yesterday. The Alliance’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said these units, which are to be deployed in countries like Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Bulgaria, will play a key role, serving as the connection between national armies and NATO troops. We recall that NATO has decided to create a rapid reaction force in Eastern Europe in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
The Liberal Party in the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian-speaking majority has announced its readiness to back the candidacy of Iurie Leanca for the position of Prime Minister, at the same time adding that all depends on the names proposed for the ministerial seats in the future executive in Chisinau. The Alliance for a European Moldova, made up of Liberal-democrats and Democrats has mustered only 42 MP seats and they need at least 51 out of a total 101 seats to form a government. The communists have already stated their refusal to vote for a minority government headed by Iurie Leanca.
The new Greek finance minister Yanis Varufakis, a supporter of the anti-austerity measures of the new government, will today go to Paris, although his visit was initially scheduled for Monday. Yesterday Varufakis said his government would not cooperate with the international lenders and would not comply with the austerity programme asked by them. The Greek official met the Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem in Athens, who said that Greece must comply with the conditions of the agreement it had with the eurozone. The Dutch official has called into attention the fact that a unilateral decision will affect the progress obtained so far.
