Moldovan foreign affairs minister meets Russian counterpart

Chisinau, 11 September /MOLDPRES/ - The boosting of the commercial and economic bilateral relations, organizing a meeting of the Moldovan-Russian inter-governmental commission for economic cooperation, problems faced by Moldovan citizens, dealing especially with the lack of an agreement on social protection, the priority of withdrawal of the Russian troops deployed in the Transnistrian region, as well as the re-launch of the dialogue on the evacuation and destruction of the ammunitions stocked at the Cobasna-based military depot have been discussed at a meeting between Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Nicu Popescu and Foreign Affairs Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry’s public diplomacy, strategic communication and media interaction service has reported.   

Ministers Nicu Popescu and Sergey Lavrov tackled ways of normalizing the inter-governmental dialogue and identified a string of sectors in which progress is seen as possible and necessary.

Minister Nicu Popescu highlighted the importance of coordinated steps to foster the bilateral commercial and economic relations and turn to good account the present potential to this end. The sides emphasized the intention to fully re-launch the economic ties and remove all obstacles to the Moldovan-Russian economic relations. At the same time, the Moldovan foreign affairs minister reiterated that the signing of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement, which includes the Free Trade Area, did not run counter the Free Trade Zone within the Commonwealth of Independent States.   

In the context, the Moldovan diplomacy head voiced hope that the forthcoming meeting of the Moldovan-Russian inter-governmental commission for economic cooperation, due in Chisinau, would represent a good platform for identifying concrete ways of overcoming the problems accumulated, which hinder the development of the bilateral trade.

A special subject of the meeting represented the problems faced by Moldovan citizens, related to the lack of an agreement on social protection with Russia. In this context, the officials discussed possibilities to cut the roaming costs between Moldova and Russia.  

Referring to the problems of Transnistrian settlement and Russia’s role as mediator state in this process, the Moldovan foreign affairs minister reiterated the priority of the withdrawal of the Russian troops deployed in the Transnistrian region, the presence of which in Moldova runs counter the principle of neutrality provided for in the country’s Constitution.

The Moldovan diplomacy head welcomed Russia’s willingness to re-launch the dialogue on the evacuation and destruction of the ammunitions stocked at the military depot of Cobasna from Moldova’s Transnistrian region. Nicu Popescu voiced hope that this subject would be discussed with all international actors, under the aegis of OSCE, as soon as possible.