The national flag of Chad (French: Drapeau du Tchad; Arabic: علم تشاد) is a vertical tricolour consisting (left to right) of a blue, a gold and a red field. Since the 1990s, its similarity to the flag of Romania has caused international discussion. In 2004, Chad asked the United Nations to examine the issue; however, Ion Iliescu, the President of Romania, announced no change would occur to the flag, as the existence of Romania's tricolour predates the existence of Chad as a whole. The flag of Chad is a vertical tricolour consisting (left to right) of a blue, a gold and a red column. These were intended to be a combination of the colours of blue, white and red as seen on the Flag of France with the Pan-African colours of green, yellow and red. Furthermore, the blue represents the sky and hope; the gold is the sun and desert, and the red signifies the bloodshed over independence. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)