March 9, 2018 UPDATE
Romania, guest of honour of Leipzig Book Fair
Newsroom, 09.03.2018, 19:50
FLU — The Romanian National Public Health Institute announced on Friday that another person infected with the flu virus died. The death toll has reached 88 in Romania. The last victim is a 17-year old with pre-existing health problems who had not been vaccinated against the flu. Health Minister Sorina Pintea says that we cannot speak of a flue epidemic yet.
VISIT – Romania’s Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu on Friday, during his formal visit to Croatia, met with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and with the head of Parliament, Gordan Jandrokovic. Highlighted at these meetings were the good bilateral ties, the similar opinion on regional, European and international matters and the wish to consolidate and diversify Romanian-Croatian cooperation. The Romanian and Croatian officials hailed the role that the Romanian community in Croatia and the Croatian community in Romania have in strengthening the bilateral ties. Minister Melescanu visited the Romanian Orthodox Church in Zagreb, a building the local Catholic Church has made available for the Romanian community.
DEFENCE – Romania’s Defence Minister Mihai Fifor and his Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos signed on Friday in Bucharest a cooperation agreement in the field of defence. Minister Fifor said that Greece is Romania’s major ally in the region. According to the Greek official, Romania and Greece have stepped up their relations both in bilateral terms and as partners within NATO and the EU. The two officials also tackled, among other things, the situation in the Western Balkans, the extended Black Sea area and the agenda of the EU summit in July.
MEETING – US President Donald Trump has accepted to meet his North-Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un in May, South-Korean authorities have announced. According to the White House leader, “great progress” had been made but there would be no prospect of lifting sanctions until a deal was reached. Trump has also said that the ample military manoeuvres with South Korea will not be suspended. In turn, the North-Korean leader has pledged to get involved in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to put and end to nuclear or missile tests. Japan’s Premier Shinzo Abe has hailed the change in North Korea’s attitude but specified that Washington and Tokyo will maintain maximum pressure on Pyongyang until concrete action is taken so that it may irreversibly scrap its nuclear programme.
BOOK FAIR — Romania is this year a guest of honour of the Leipzig Book Fair, the most important such event in Europe and one of the oldest in the world. The book fair kicks off on March 15. According to a release by the Culture Ministry, Romania’s participation in this event as a guest of honour mirrors not only the good Romanian-German cultural ties but also the prospects for the development of long-term projects in the cultural and academic fields. The Romanian-born German writer Herta Muller, a Nobel laureate for literature in 2009, will attend the event.
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 Romanian soldiers are training together with their counterparts from the allied and partner countries such as the US, France, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine. (Translated by Elena Enache)
