Romania, Turkmenistan seeking ’strong’ development of bilateral relations

Romania and Turkmenistan seek the ''strong'' development of bilateral relations, not only on political, but also on economic ground, is the conclusion of the talks held on Wednesday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace by the two chiefs of states, Traian Basescu and Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, on the occasion of the latter's official visit to Romania.

'We decided to strongly develop our bilateral relations, not only at political, but also at economic level. The development of economic ties does not envisage only the energy area, but all economic activities that can be developed under a Romania-Turkmenistan partnership. To this aim, we decided to establish an intergovernmental commission that should analyze all possibilities of bilateral cooperation,' President Traian Basescu said at the end of the meeting.

According to the Romanian President, the documents signed on the occasion of the visit of his Turkmen counterpart are 'highly important' and are meant to provide mutual guarantees for investments, the development of economic relations, cooperation in the sector of education and between the two Foreign Ministries. The subject of the European Nabucco pipeline project was also tackled during talks.

In turn, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov said that the two countries have common priorities. ''We succeeded in setting solid grounds for the development of our bilateral relations. We don't start from scratch, this relation already has a tradition, as Romania counts to the states that recognized 17 years ago the independence of Turkmenistan, and it is highly important for us to find that we have a great potential for the development of our relations,' said Berdimukhamedov. He noted that commercial exchanges witnessed a strong growth the year before and are further following an upward trend.

Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov said that another way whereby Romania can support Turkmenistan's approaches to develop relations with European states is by actions undertaken within the UN, NATO and EU.

'The sets of documents signed today, especially those related to economy, where our interests are highest, stand witness to the development of cooperation development. Turkmenistan is extremely rich in resources and is ready to cooperate with Romania in this area. Turkmenistan is interested in developing top-technologies and equipment for the processing of these resources. Here too we find that we have common priorities and our cooperation also targets other activities in agriculture, transportation and constructions,' said the Turkmen President.

Berdimukhamedov mentioned that his country offers Romanian companies the possibility to participate in projects that are highly important for Turkmenistan, like the development of the Caspian Sea draft agreement.

''We discussed the construction of plant, infrastructure, in particular rail on the north-south, east-west direction, linking Turkmenistan to Europe and the Persian Gulf. We also discussed cooperation in education. Hundreds of Turkmen students are currently studying all over the world and we hope for Romanian prestigious academic institutions to also count to the institutes providing training to our students,' said Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov.

He thanked his Romanian counterpart for the positive outcomes of the meeting and invited Traian Basescu to Turkmenistan.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov is paying a two-day visit to Romania at the invitation of President Traian Basescu.

On this occasion, the sides signed the agreement between the governments of Romania and Turkmenistan on economic cooperation, the protocol between the two governments to the agreement on the mutual promotion and protection of investments signed in Bucharest on November 16, 1994, the Convention between the Government of Romania and the Government of Turkmenistan to prevent double taxation and tax evasion related to income and capital taxes, the cooperation program in the line of education to be jointly implemented by the Romanian Ministry of Education, Research and Youth and Turkmenistan's Ministry of Education between 2008-2012, and the Memorandum of understanding between the Romanian and the Turkmen Foreign Ministries.

Other entries on the agenda of the Turkmen President are meetings with Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and Senate president Nicolae Vacaroiu, followed by a trip to Ploiesti, where he will meet the leadership of the local Oil and Gas University.

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On December 20, 1991, Romania acknowledged the statehood of Turkmenistan; the two states established diplomatic relations on July 20, 1992.

On December 2007, bilateral exchanges stood at an aggregate amount of 148.38 million dollars, of which exports accounted for 14.36 million dollars and imports for 134.02 million dollars.

Romania imports from Turkmenistan mineral products and cotton, and exports machines, electric equipment, devices, metals.

EU Chief Confident Italy to Respect Rules on Roma (Gypsy) Ethnics

The census is part of a crackdown by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi`s government on crime.

The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said on Tuesday he was confident Italy's census of Roma people (Gypsies), criticised by the European Parliament and human rights groups as discriminatory, would respect EU rules—Reuters reports.

The Rome government has come under attack for its plan to conduct a census, with fingerprinting if necessary, of all people living in camps, including children.

The census is part of a crackdown by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government on crime.

Mr. Barroso, at a news conference with Berlusconi in Rome, said there was good cooperation between Italy and the EU executive, which is assessing whether the plan is compatible with EU anti-discrimination rules.

"I really believe ... that a solution will be found that will respect those principles that are essential for Europe and for Italy, while responding at the same time to the concerns that exist here in Italy regarding security but also the integration of immigrants," Barroso said.

EU lawmakers last week asked Italy to refrain from collecting fingerprints in nomads' camps, saying this would be a discriminatory policy aimed at a single ethnic group and would treat Roma and their children like criminals.

Similar concerns, dismissed by the Italian government, have been expressed by human rights groups and Catholic charities.

There are around 140,000 Roma people in Italy. About half come from abroad, mostly from eastern European countries such as Romania. Fifty-five percent of those living in camps are minors.

The census was ordered by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League. It initially involved fingerprinting all those living in camps in Naples, Rome and Milan, including children.

However, the government seems to have partly backtracked. Maroni said last week fingerprints would only be taken when no other means of identification was possible.

Italy is due to report back to the EU on the census, which has started in Naples and is due to begin in Rome this week, at the end of July.

A European Commission source said Barroso's message to Berlusconi in private would be that Brussels wanted "a nuts and bolts explanation of what is going on" in the treatment of the Roma.

Barroso would ask for a detailed report from Italy on why the measures were being taken, how many Roma did not have proper identity papers and what individual cases justified incarceration, the source said.

Leaders mass for parade in Paris

Leaders from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa have been attending France's Bastille Day military parade.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was the guest of honour, while two units of UN peacekeepers were leading the traditional march.

But President Nicolas Sarkozy aroused controversy by inviting President Bashar Assad of Syria, a country accused of supporting terrorism.

Mr Sarkozy was also due to give a top award to ex-hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Ms Betancourt, who was rescued from Colombian rebels earlier this month, was to receive the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, one of France's top civilian awards.

Ms Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, has strong links with France, having grown up and raised her children there.

The parade followed a weekend in which President Sarkozy launched the Union for the Mediterranean, a new international body with 43 member nations aimed at increasing co-operation between the EU and African and Middle Eastern countries bordering the Mediterranean.

It is meant to tackle regional issues such as immigration and pollution, but will also seek to help end unrest in the Middle East.

Many of the leaders who attended that summit on Sunday stayed on for the Bastille Day celebrations.

They included Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. Romania’s President Traian Basescu also attended the French National fête. A Romanian jet took part at the military parade.

But Mr Assad's presence angered a French veterans' group, which accuses Syria of being behind a 1983 bomb attack on a Beirut building that killed 58 French soldiers.

"We feel uneasy" about French soldiers filing past the Syrian leader, said Jean-Luc Hemar, head of the Association of Veterans from Camp Idron in central France.

The bombing "will cast a shadow over the 14th of July", he said.

Opposition Socialist leader Francois Hollande said the national day - which recollects the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 at the start of the French Revolution - was being "tainted by controversy".

However, the government said its critics had made "a historical mistake", and that Hezbollah guerrillas, and not Syria, were behind the 1983 Drakkar bombing.

Romania’s President Traian Basescu attended the Union for the Mediterranean summit

Romania's President Traian Basescu (C) is greeted by France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and Egypt's President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak (R) as he arrives at the EU-Mediterranean summit in Paris, July 13, 2008. Some 43 heads of state and government are attending the French-inspired summit intended to revitalize cooperation between the European Union and Mediterranean countries. (REUTER photo)

Reconciliation of the Mediterranean region, economic development, food and energy crises, but also migration from northern Africa were the main topics on the agenda of the summit in Paris. Romania was represented by President Basescu and FM Lazar Comanescu.

The companies from Mediterranean countries would come back to Romania due to the political framework guaranteed by the ties of EU with the states in the region, President Traian Basescu said yesterday before leaving for Paris to attend the summit for the Mediterranean region.

Basescu explained that talks would focus on Mediterranean states’ economic development, food and energy crises and migration from northern Africa to EU countries. The main objective of the summit, under French patronage, was the official launch of the initiative “Barcelona Process: a Union for the Mediterranean,” a project aimed at revitalizing efforts to make the Mediterranean a region of peace, democracy, cooperation and prosperity.

The summit was attended by leaders from over 40 countries. Besides the 27 EU members, the meeting brought together leaders of Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, the Palestinian authority, Jordan, Mauritania, Albania and others. President Basescu said Romania would support Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Monaco to obtain membership of the Barcelona Process.

High on the agenda was food and energy crises, but also issues related to fighting extremism and terrorism in the area, in the context of Romania’s involvement in NATO exercises in the region, said Basescu. Other issues that were discussed included security of transports and the fight against illegal immigration, but also civil protection for Mediterranean states and assistance the EU can give these states in case of natural disasters. Basescu added that Romania would transfer diplomatic experience to the EU in efforts to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “The presence of Israel and the Palestinian authority in the process is of great interest for us. (…) The process offers us the possibility of bringing the experience of Romanian diplomacy in the region, in a much stronger shape, this time by transferring experience in the European Union, which will be an extremely active factor in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said. Basescu will remain in Paris today as well, as he was invited by his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, to attend France National Day events.

The highlight of yesterday’s summit was the presence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, together with 40 other leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the first time Israeli and Syrian leaders were in the same room, according to Reuters. The two countries recently began indirect peace talks with Turkish mediation. The diplomatic breakthrough enabled Assad to emerge from isolation in the West three years after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which many believe was orchestrated from Damascus.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said it was time the region put years of strife behind it and forge new ties with European Union states on the pressing issues of the day.

“The project is quite simply about taking in hand the big challenges of the century ahead,” Kouchner told a pre-summit meeting of foreign ministers from all the states involved.

“Climate change, worsening of the environment, access to water and energy, migration, dialogue between civilizations, the Mediterranean is at the heart of all the issues on which our future depends,” he added.

But the Paris summit, a diplomatic success for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the EU’s rotating presidency, may be richer in symbolism than substance, at least to start with. France and Egypt will be the first countries to co-chair the new body, but details such as the location and powers of its secretariat remain to be resolved, and the Middle East conflicts that bedevilled past EU-Mediterranean cooperation loom large. Sarkozy was able to boast that all the leaders of the southern Mediterranean region except Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi would be present, whereas only one attended a 2005 Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona. The French leader booked a first success on Saturday when he hosted talks between Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, who agreed to normalise relations between Damascus and Beirut for the first time since independence in 1943. During a joint press conference with the two leaders, Sarkozy announced that both countries agreed to open diplomatic missions in each other’s capital cities.