September 3, 2014
A look at some of the main stories in Romania today
România Internațional, 03.09.2014, 12:00
Romania’s Supreme Defence Council chaired by president Traian Basescu meet today to discuss Romania’s position at the upcoming NATO summit hosted by Wales on Thursday and Friday. The president said recently that Romania would be in favour of consolidating NATO’s eastern flank and strengthening the latter’s military presence in the Black Sea area. NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday that his organisation plans to become more visible in the NATO states on the eastern flank by creating a rapid reaction force to respond to threats from Russia. Romania’s Supreme Defence Council will also discuss Romania’s contribution to the NATO mission in Afghanistan in 2015, when Bucharest has been asked to ensure the security of the airport in Kandahar and maintain around 400 soldiers in the region.
Romania’s foreign minister Titus Corlatean today starts an official visit to the UK for talks with his counterpart Philip Hammond. The two officials will discuss topical security issues, with an emphasis on the NATO summit this week, as well as bilateral issues. Before travelling to Cardiff to attend the summit, Mr Corlatean will take part in a talk on safeguarding NATOs borders as part of a conference entitled “Returning Home? NATO and European Security” held under the aegis of the Royal United Services Institute.
The president of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Anne Brasseur travels for a 3-day official visit to Romania. She is to meet prime minister Victor Ponta, the speakers of the two chambers of Parliament, leaders of the opposition parties and members of the Romanian delegation to Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. Ms Brasseur will also visit the Council of Europe office for combating information crime. During a trip to Craiova, in the south, she is due to meet representatives of the local authorities, members of parliament, EMPs and representatives of the university community and civil society.
The president’s office in Kiev has announced that president Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on a permanent ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Kremlin’s spokesman has denied the information, saying Russia is not a party to the conflict. Earlier, he said the two presidents discussed the military and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine over the telephone. Putin and Poroshenko met on the 26th of August in Minsk at a regional summit also attended by EU representatives, but no concrete solutions to the crisis were found. More than 2,600 people have been killed so far in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and over half a million people have had to leave their homes, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Currently on a trip to Estonia, US president Barack Obama said it’s too early to gauge Kiev’s announcement about a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. He added that no realistic agreement can be reached as long as Russia continues to send troops into Ukraine under the guise of separatists. Barack Obama has travelled to Estonia to confirm Washington’s firm commitment to the Baltic states as NATO denounces Russia’s military actions in eastern Ukraine. Obama will have talks in Tallin with the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to discuss cooperation in the field of regional security ahead of the upcoming NATO summit.
The White House has confirmed today that the video showing the beheading of the American journalist Steven Sotloff by Islamic State fighters is authentic. Sotloff, aged 31, disappeared a year ago in Syria, where he was reporting on the civil war in that country. He is the second American journalist after James Foley to be executed by the jihadists in response to US air strikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq. The video also shows a third hostage, a British citizen and ends with the warning that he may be the next to die.
