Last Saturday, March 12, the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations hosted the first edition of the Romanian International Security Conference (R.I.S.C), which focused on the topic of “The Security-Development Nexus and its Policy Impact: a United Nations Perspective”.
Organized by the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations in New York, the New York Local Chapter of the Global Romanian Society of Young Professionals (GRASP), in collaboration with the US branch of the League of Romanian Students Abroad (LSRS) and with the support of the Romanian American Business Council – the R.I.S.C. was by all accounts a success.
The event was attended by high-ranking UN officials, ambassadors and diplomats, international civil servants, representatives of the Romanian Government and of the Romanian Foreign Ministry. Romanian and foreign young professionals as well as students from the ivy-league universities of Columbia and Harvard were an integral part of the event.
The Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations, Ambassador Ion Jinga, referred to the implications of the security-development nexus on multilateralism. He emphasized that the UN must be perceived as a part of the solutions to global problems and that the effectiveness of the Organization’s response is “directly proportional to the political will of its member states”.
Jean-Paul Laborde, the Assistant Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), offered an account of the rule of law as the foundation of all elements within society and the key to the hands-on arrangement for security and development consolidation. Noted speakers and contributors were Ambassador Vlad Lupan, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the UN, Simona Marinescu, Director of the Development Impact Group in the UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, Radu Tătucu, World Bank expert and co-founder of GRASP Global, and Philip Spoerri, the Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation to the UN.
The final panel, focusing on Romania’s role within regional and global security, a presentation chaired by Călin Stoica, National Security Advisor to the Romanian Prime-Minister, who discussed the Romanian National Security Strategy, and the country’s role as a regional security provider, new security challenges and the types of collective response. Other contributions included Doina Doroftei, head of the Unit for Development Assistance, Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ștefan Minovici, president of the Romanian-American Business Council (RABC) and Col. Florin Roman, military advisor within the Permanent Mission of Romania to the UN. They focused on Romania’s contribution in the promotion of the UN development assistance objectives, managing the brain drain phenomenon, and Romania’s participation in peacekeeping operations.
At the end of the conference, Ambassador Ion Jinga was conferred the title of Honorary President of the New York Local Chapter of the Global Romanian Society of Young Professionals (GRASP) in recognition of his outstanding openness and support of the initiatives of Romanian young professionals abroad and for his contribution in the establishment and development of GRASP New York LC.
