July 22, 2014 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 22.07.2014, 20:22
Romania wants NATO not to diminish its military resources on the eastern flank of the North-Atlantic Alliance, president Traian Basescu said before his departure to Warsaw, where as of Tuesday he is taking part in a summit of the heads of states from Central and Eastern Europe. High on the summit’s agenda are the regional situation with emphasis on the crisis in Ukraine and preparations for the upcoming NATO summit in Britain in September. In Warsaw, the president of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski pleaded for a strengthened collective NATO defense at the Alliance’s border in the context of the crisis in Russia and Ukraine. In Moscow on Tuesday, during the proceedings of the country’s Security Council, president Putin said that Russia must complete boosting its defense capabilities timely and in full amid increased NATO military presence near Russian borders. Also on Tuesday, Parliament in Ukraine endorsed a presidential decree concerning a new partial mobilization of men under 50 to fight the armed pro-Russian rebels.
A delegation of the IMF is in Bucharest for talks about the first budget adjustment in 2014, announced by Prime Minister Victor Ponta last month. At the end of this week the Finance Ministry has to make public the figures concerning budget implementation on the first semester of the year. According to the latest data released by the Finance Ministry, the consolidated budget deficit dropped to 0.24% of the GDP upon the first five months of the year. The Romanian authorities and the IMF have agreed over a 2.2 % of the GDP for this year. Romania ended last year with a general consolidated budget deficit of 2.5% of the GDP.
US state secretary John Kerry on Tuesday said in Cairo that the only way to stop violence in Gaza is the implementation of the Egyptian initiative. Last week, Egypt proposed a ceasefire, already accepted by Israel but conditioned by the Hamas movement, which has called for the release of prisoners and the cessation of the Israeli blockade over the Gaza Strip. Currently on a tour in the region UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has made an appeal to both Israelis and Palestinians to lay down weapons and start negotiations in order to put an end to the bloody conflict in the region.
The pro-Russia rebels handed over to a Malaysian investigation commission two black boxes of the plane that on Thursday crashed in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board the plane, including a Romanian, died in the disaster, which the US says should be blamed on the pro-Russia separatists. The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution under which it condemns the attack and calls on the separatists to allow free and safe access to the crash site, to protect the integrity of the area and stop fighting there.
The pro-West Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Iurie Leanca, has termed as inexplicable Russia’s decision to ban the import of fresh and canned fruit from the Republic of Moldova, claiming they are infested. The Moldovan Government, which gathered in a special session to find solutions to Moscow’s decision, is now considering introducing fruits in the daily meals of pupils and the military. Anticipated by analysts, the embargo comes after the ratification last month of the association and free trade agreements with the EU.
