Free Republic

Romanian President Traian Basescu announced last week that his country would accept an US offer to base medium-range interceptor missiles (the proposed land-based version of the SM3 system) as part of the revamped missile defence plans formulated by the Obama Administration in 2009. "Romania has been officially invited by US President Barack Obama to be part of the [new] missile defence system," Basescu said after a meeting of the country's Supreme Defence Council. He stated that talks between Washington and Bucharest on the issue should start in the near future and any agreement will be submitted to Romanian parliament for...

President Traian Basescu promised Monday his administration would slash payroll taxes next year and pass legislation to reduce bureaucratic procedures. The measures are meant to improve the performance of the Romanian economy as the country gears up for membership in the European Union in 2007. "I am convinced that there is no other solution for Romania than a healthy business environment that will stimulate Romanian and foreign investment," Basescu told a Romanian-French business forum in Bucharest. Romania already enacted a radical tax reform on Jan. 1 by introducing a flat tax of 16 percent that replaced income taxes, which ranged...

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Three Romanian journalists were kidnapped in Iraq Monday, Romania's President Traian Basescu said. "We have alerted all the secret services and the foreign intelligence services of our allies to solve the case," Basescu told Romanian TVR1 television. Two of the kidnapped journalists work for Romania's Prima TV, where an editor had received a phone call from them saying they had been abducted, TVR1 said. It named the two Prima reporters as Marijan Ion and Sorin Miscoci. Also kidnapped was Ovidiu Ohannesian of Romania Libera newspaper, it said. The three had been making a short reporting trip to...

Washington, 9 March: Romanian President Traian Basescu arrived on Tuesday [8 March] afternoon (local time) in Washington in a two-day official visit at the invitation of US President George W Bush. President Basescu is to start his visit to the USA with a meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning with the American president at the White House. Later on Wednesday the head of the Romanian state is to meet with the American Senate majority leader of the Republicans, Bill Frist, who will offer a working luncheon in honour of the Romanian President that will be attended by some senior officials of...