April 16, 2014 UPDATE
A round-up of local and international news.
România Internațional, 16.04.2014, 12:10
NATO will be reinforcing its military presence on sea, land and in the air along its eastern borders, in the Baltic states and Poland, in response to the crisis in Ukraine, said the NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen after a meeting the 28 NATO ambassadors in Brussels. He reiterated that the Alliance supports the efforts of the international community to find a political solution that fulfils the wishes of all Ukrainians and respects the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. The NATO chief called on Russia to be part of the solution, to stop destabilising Ukraine, pull out its troops from the border and clearly state that it does not support the pro-Russian militia in eastern Ukraine.
Romania’s foreign minister Titus Corlatean has called on the OSCE presidency to comment on Wednesday’s vote in the self-appointed parliament in Transdniester concerning the independence of this region and its joining Russia. Mr Corlatean says he supports the position of the Moldovan government according to which the vote defies the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova and runs counter to the efforts to find a political solution to the situation in Transdniester in a 5+2 format. A delegation from Transdniester is to travel to Moscow on Thursday to submit to the speaker of the Russian Duma a request to recognise the independence of Transdniester and its joining Russia, a request passed on Wednesday by the region’s parliament. The request was also sent to the European Union.
The four members of the Visegrad Group, alongside Romania and Bulgaria, will apply a unified strategy for launching new development projects and efficiently promoting their interests in the European Union, agreed the development ministers of the six states during a meeting in Budapest. This common strategy will ensure a similar development level throughout the region and enhance the competitiveness of the regional states. Created in 1991, the Visegrad Group includes Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday launched an electronic portal entitled e-VIZA for foreign citizens wishing to obtain an entry visa for Romania. The project was co-financed by the European Social Fund. Foreign nationals will thus be able to apply for the Romanian visa online from anywhere in the world. The portal is available as of the 17th of April.
“Nina Cassian was part of an outstanding generation of Romanian cultural figures and her work is in the constellation of the great Romanian poets”, said president Traian Basescu in a message of condolence conveyed to the family of Nina Cassian, a great Romanian poet who died on Tuesday in New York aged 89. Her literary efforts were encouraged and supported by Tudor Arghezi and Ion Barbu, while her original style earned her the Writers Union Award. Following a conflict with the Ceausescu regime in the 1980s, she was forced to live in the US. Nina Cassian is also known as a prose writer and translator, as well as a composer of lieder and chamber music.
