March 9, 2018
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 09.03.2018, 14:27
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 maneuvers 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 conduct no more 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.
DEFENCE Romania’s Defence Minister Mihai Fifor and his Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos have today signed in Bucharest a cooperation agreement in the field of defence. Minister Fifor has 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 bilaterally and as NATO and EU partners. The two have also tackled, among other things, the situation in the Western Balkans, the extended Black Sea area and the agenda of the EU summit in Brussels in July.
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.
JHA Romania’s Interior Minister Carmen Dan is attending in Brussels the proceedings of the Justice and Home Affairs Council. Among other things talks are focusing on cooperation in the EU common and defence policy and the European agencies in the field of home affairs. Carmen Dan is expected to support a strengthened coordination between the EU’s home security and its external dimension. She will reiterate Romania’s firm support for strengthening cooperation in fighting organized crime, terrorism and extremism and also for strengthening border security and developing effective migration management in the EU vicinity. The JHA council has officially appointed Catherine De Bolle of Belgium as head of Europol, Europe’s Police Office. De Bolle’s mandate is due to begin on May 1st.
VISIT Romania’s Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu, is continuing his formal visit to Croatia. The head of the Romanian diplomacy will be seeing Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. Melescanu’s agenda also includes a visit to the Romanian Orthodox Church in Zagreb, a building the local Catholic Church has made available for the Romanian community. Melescanu is also to meet leaders of the Association of the Romanians in Croatia. On Thursday, Melescanu attended the inauguration of Romania’s honorary consulate in Split and held talks with the president of Croatia’s Chamber of Economy, Luka Burilovic.
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