March 8, 2018 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 08.03.2018, 19:56
IWD The International Women’s Day is an opportunity to reiterate Romania’s commitment to promoting women’s rights and eliminating gender discrimination, the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest has announced. The institution has also described the day as an opportunity to consider the progress made in promoting women’s role and admitting their contribution to the development of modern society. Women were celebrated on Thursday in more than 50 countries around the world. Since 1975, the International Women’s Day has been celebrated on March 8th. Under a resolution endorsed two years later, the UN General Assembly acknowledged women’s role in the peace and development efforts in fighting discrimination and supporting women’s participation in the life of society.
DEFENCE Romania’s Defence Minister, Mihai Fifor, on Thursday announced that a draft on amending the servicemen statute had been submitted to Parliament in Bucharest. According to Fifor, it was high time the military got the respect it deserved from the state institutions and citizens. The Defence Minister delivered a speech in Focsani, eastern Romania, during the repatriation ceremony attended by some Romanian troops who served in the Kandahar region in Afghanistan.
DRILL Over 17 hundred Romanian and foreign servicemen are participating until March 15 in one of the biggest multinational drills staged by the Romanian Armed Forces in Dobrogea, south-eastern Romania, as well as in the Black Sea’s international waters. Spring Storm 18 exercise is based on a unique training concept during which naval, air and ground forces are carrying out amphibious and minesweeping operations in a landing area. The drill is part of NATO assurance measures adopted at the Alliance’s 2016 summit in Warsaw. The Romanian soldiers are training together with their counterparts from the allied and partner countries like the USA, France, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine.
RELATIONS 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 has 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.
