Hafez al-Assad, the son of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, will come to Romania in July to participate in the International Math Olympiad that will be organized in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Sputnik.md reported.

Local authorities told NewsTeam agency that they are prepared to ensure the security of Hafez al-Assad, who will be guarded by bodyguards during his stay in Romania.

The 2018 edition of the International Math Olympiad will take place in Cluj-Napoca between July 3 and July 14. The event is expected to attract over 1,000 participants, 700 of them students, from 120 countries. Media reports said the budget for the Olympiad is of over EUR 1 million.

The International Math Olympiad was launched in Romania in 1959 at the initiative of Romanian professor Tiberiu Roman, Secretary General of the Society of Mathematical Sciences. The first two editions took place in Brasov and Sinaia, gathering exclusively countries from the former communist bloc. The first Western country was allowed to participate in the competition in 1969, with more Western states becoming members of the International Math Olympiad after 1970.

Romania holds the record for organizing the competition, being host in 1969, 1979 and 1999. Moreover, Romania and Bulgaria are the only countries with uninterrupted presence in this contest, and in an unofficial ranking on medals, Romania ranks third.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com