Unirea, Alba

Unirea, previously Vințu de Sus (Hungarian: Felvinc, German: Oberwinz), is a commune located in the north-east of Alba County, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Ciugudu de Jos (Alfüged), Ciugudu de Sus (Felfüged), Dumbrava (Dombró), Inoc (Inakfalva), Măhăceni (Aranyosmohács) and Unirea.

Geography

Unirea is located on the Mureş River, in the north-east corner of Alba County, approximately 50 km from the county capital, Alba Iulia, and 20 km from the town of Turda, on the Romanian National Road DN1.

The commune is bordered by Cluj County in the north and west, the town of Ocna Mureş in the east, and the commune of Mirăslău in the south.

History

From the late 13th century until 1876 the centre of today's commune was the administrative centre of the Aranyosszék region of Transylvania. In 1876, when the administrative system of the Kingdom of Hungary was reorganised, it became part of Torda-Aranyos county.

After the Union of Transylvania with Romania in 1918, the commune became part of Turda County. Since 1968, when the latest administrative organisation in Romania was adopted, Unirea has been part of Alba County.

Iraq National Oil Company

The Iraq National Oil Company (INOC) was founded in 1966 by the Iraqi government. It was empowered to operate all aspects of the oil industry in Iraq except for refining which was already being run by the Oil Refineries Administration (1952) and local distribution which was also already under government control.

In 1961 Iraq passed Public Law 80 whereby Iraq expropriated 95% of the Iraq Petroleum Company's concessions, and went on to announce the intent to form the INOC in 1964. In 1967 Iraq and the Soviet Union signed the Iraq-Soviet Protocol which committed the Soviet Union to give technical and financial aid to the company. In 1967 and 1968 the company's purview was expanded to include areas expropriated from the Iraq Petroleum Company.

Unlike the National Iranian Oil Company, the INOC was forbidden from entering into partnerships or granting concessions to foreign oil companies. Though there was discussion of allowing the French Compagnie Française de Pétroles, partners in IPC from whom the North Rumaila Field had been appropriated, to enter into a contract to develop the field, ultimately, with the help of the Soviet Union, the INOC opened the field on 7 April 1972.

Indian Ocean Commission

The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) is an intergovernmental organization that was created in 1982 at Port Louis, Mauritius and institutionalized in 1984 by the Victoria Agreement in Seychelles. The IOC is composed of five African Indian Ocean nations: Comoros, Réunion (a department of France), Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles. Notwithstanding their different characteristics (Reunion as a French department; Mauritius and Seychelles as Middle-Income Countries whereas Comoros and Madagascar are amongst the Least-Developed Countries), the five islands share geographic proximity, historical and demographic relationships, natural resources and common development issues.

IOC’s principal mission is to strengthen the ties of friendship between the countries and to be a platform of solidarity for the entire population of the African Indian Ocean region. IOC’s mission also includes development, through projects related to sustainability for the region, aimed at protecting the region, improving the living conditions of the populations and preserving the various natural resources that the countries depend on. Being an organisation regrouping only island states, the IOC has usually championed the cause of small island states in regional and international fora.