January 11, 2023 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 11.01.2023, 20:05
VISIT — Romania’s Chief of Defense Staff, General Daniel Petrescu, is currently on an official visit to the UK at the invitation of his counterpart, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. According to the Romanian Defense Ministry, the two officials will discuss the current security situation and the stage of implementation of the measures aimed to consolidate the defense and deterrence posture on NATO’s eastern flank, as well as bilateral cooperation. General Petrescu will also visit a number of military bases and the Royal United Service Institute of London. The visit ends on Saturday.
TALKS — The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, on Wednesday had a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. The discussion was a continuation of the one Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis had with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zekenskyy, on January 4th, when it was agreed that the two countries’ foreign ministers would meet to find solutions to the problems signaled by Romania as regards the Ukrainian law on national minorities. Aurescu and Kuleba have agreed to hold extensive consultations on these matters, to included talks at expert level and at foreign ministry level. Aurescu reiterated Romania’s firm support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and mentioned in the context Bucharest’s support for Ukraine and its people, victims of Russia’s war of aggression.
GOVERNMENT – Romanian Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, said at the government meeting on Wednesday that total investment in the country, with funds from the state budget, stood at some 14.6 billion EUR at the end of 2022, a record high for Romania, which confirms the upward trend of the Romanian economy. Nicolae Ciucă quoted a recent study of the Economic Department of Harvard Academy which states that “Romania has become the 19th most complex and sophisticated economy in the world, with a potential for growth. Results by the end of 2030 should push Romania in the top 10 countries”. As regards foreign direct investment, the Prime Minister said that in 2022 their volume exceeded the level of 2008, the year that marked the highest such level. Nicolae Ciucă also highlighted the importance of the European funds to these results.
IRAN – Irans ambassador in Romania was summoned at the Foreign Ministry headquarters on Tuesday, where he was notified regarding Romanias firm opposition to the enforcement of the capital sentence, irrespective of circumstances, and to the hanging of protesters by the Teheran authorities. The decision follows the hanging of two Iranian protesters on January 7 in Teheran. The Romanian Foreign Ministry voiced deep concern with the continuous violation of human rights in Iran, including the sentencing of protesters for political reasons, in the absence of a fair trial, in the context of nationwide protests in September 2022, sparked by the death of Masha Amini. The Romanian Foreign Ministry reminded the Iranian ambassador the conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting of December 12, 2022, with a focus on all issues that did not receive a constructive response from Teheran authorities. The Romanian MFA also pointed out that the said aspects in the conclusions still need to be resolved, failure of which would negatively impact Irans relations with the EU.
RESIGNATION — The president of Romania’s Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), Constantin Mituletu-Buica, has submitted his resignation to Parliament. The National Integrity Agency has recently notified the General Prosecutor’s Office about the fact that Mituletu-Buica had allegedly hired his sister-in-law, illegally, as advisor at the office of the AEP’s vice-president. In November 2021, he was prosecuted for three cases of abuse of office. (EE)
