June 19, 2014

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Bogdan Matei, 19.06.2014, 12:00

VISIT — Romania’s Minister Delegate for Romanians Worldwide Bogdan Stanoevici is today paying a visit to the United States, where he will meet with Loretta Sanchez, a member of the House of Representatives in the US Congress, co-chair of the Romanian Caucus. Bogdan Stanoevici will also meet in New York with representatives of the Romanian community and the Romanian press and will attend the festival “The Romanian Days on Broadway”. Bogdan Stanoevici will first stop in Paris to visit the young Romanian of Roma origin whose condition is critical. The Romanian was kidnapped and assaulted by a group of people on the Paris outskirts. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has called on French authorities to shed light on the circumstances of this incident as soon as possible. French officials have publicly condemned the assault and have opened a criminal investigation for attempted murder.

SUCCESSION — The coronation of the Spanish king Felipe the VI of Bourbon took place on Thursday in Madrid. Addressing the Spanish Parliament, King Felipe expressed confidence that Spain would remain united despite Catalonia’s independence aspirations. Felipe’s ascension to the Spanish throne comes at a difficult time for the country. Spain is still struggling with the effects of the prolonged economic crisis, the northeastern region of Catalonia seeks independence, while republicans demand a referendum on the monarchy. The main political parties however oppose the idea of a republic. Both the people’s right and the socialist left have re-asserted their support for the monarchy. We recall that on Wednesday Felipe’s father Juan Carlos signed the act of his own abdication, which puts an end to a reign of almost four decades, during which time Juan Carlos championed the democratic transition in Spain after the demise of General Francisco Franco’s totalitarian regime.

UKRAINE — Washington has hailed the statement of Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, who calls for a unilateral ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, adding that it awaits a response from Moscow so that this crisis should end, France Press reports. In a telephone conversation with Poroshenko, US vice-president Joe Biden said the US would cooperate with its allies to make Russia pay “an additional price”, should Russia fail to use its influence to put an end to separatist violence in eastern Ukraine. In another development, the European Union has warned it would ban all imports from Crimea as of next week, in response to the annexation of this region to the Russian Federation.

REGIONAL COOPERATION — Romania, the country currently holding the Chairmanship of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) is today organizing the annual meeting of the Regional Cooperation Council. The meeting will focus on the latest evolutions in the field of regional cooperation and will review the status of implementing the 2020 South-East Europe Strategy. Also in Bucharest on Friday, Foreign Ministers of SEECP participant countries will meet in Bucharest. The SEECP is a non-institutional regional cooperation structure and the only political forum in southeastern Europe exclusively managed by countries in the region. Its participants are Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.

IRAQ — US fighter jets stationed on the carrier currently deployed in the Persian Gulf have started surveillance missions in Iraq, the US press reports. The White House leader Barack Obama on Wednesday said he did not exclude any possible response to the Sunni Jihadist military advance in Iraq, with the sole exception of the deployment of land forces. Baghdad authorities on Wednesday called on the US to launch an air strike against the Jihadists, who have taken over the country’s main refinery, situated some 200 km from Baghdad. Last week Islamists managed to take control of a large territory, imposing specific Islamist laws and carrying out public executions of civilians captured Iraqi military.

SPORTS — Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, ranked 3rd in WTA standings, said she would recover in time for the WTA tournament in Wimbledon next week, after on Wednesday she withdrew from the s’Hertogenbosch tournament after sustaining a shoulder injury in the round of 16 match against Annika Beck of Germany. Halep had won the first set 7-5. Halep has been seeded third in the Wimbledon tournament, the third Grand Slam tournament of the year. This month Halep lost the Roland Garros finals to Maria Sharapova of Russia. In other news from sports, today’s draw in Zagreb will reveal the Romanian women’s handball team’s opponents at the European Championship of December to take place in Croatia and Hungary.

2014 World Cup — Defending world champion Spain has been knocked out from the 2014 World Cup group phase, after it lost Wednesday’s match against Chile 2-nil. Trounced in the first match against the Netherlands 1-5, the Spanish team has zero points in two matches and will go home irrespective of the result of the last match of the group against Australia. In the other group fixture Australia sustained a narrow 2-3 defeat to the Netherlands. Chile and the Netherlands will fight in the last match for the top position in Group B. Also on Wednesday in Group A, Croatia trashed Cameroon 4-nil. Brazil and Mexico are first and second, followed by Croatia with three points and Cameroon with no points. Today’s matches will pit Columbia against the Ivory Coast, Greece against Japan in Group C and Uruguay against England in Group D.