21 January 2005. Romanian President Traian Basescu on visit to Chisinau

On 21 January 2005, after a break of more than 6 years, a president of Romania paid an official visit to Chisinau. The break was triggered by the instable political situation in Moldova and the snap elections from 2001. Neither the first years of the Communist governance promised anything good. Vladimir Voronin was permanently bringing serious charges against Romania, practicing the rhetoric from the ‘’cold war’’ period.

Yet, the non-acceptance by Voronin of the famous Kozak Plan, which provided for Moldova’s federalization, the veto right of Tiraspol and Comrat and a Russian military base in the country’s eastern districts, angered Moscow very much and Vladimir Putin even said that he had been personally offended by this refusal. The situation of Moldova and of Voronin personally was becoming dangerous and at that time, a change of the political vector to the West took place. The European integration was declared a priority for Moldova and obviously, Romania was becoming the natural ally of Chisinau in this approach.  

From the very beginning, President Basescu said that Moldova would receive support on behalf of Romania in any problem the country was facing. ‘’I want you to know that we will never allow that Moldova is blackmailed with electric energy. Yesterday, we ruled to provide electric energy to Moldova and to discuss how much it costs in summer; yet, now we must help Moldova and we will help it and will do this whenever somebody affords to believe that it can put Moldova in difficulty as long as Moldova has a friend at its borders,’’ Traian Basescu said.   

President Traian Basescu said, after discussions held with his counterpart, Vladimir Voronin, that ‘’Romania will treat Moldova with every respect due to be paid to an independent and sovereign state.’’  

Traian Basescu thins that, due to the common history – in many regards – Romania and Moldova would also have a common future within the European Union.  

„Romania guarantees Moldova that it will be its strongest advocate in favour of the European integration. We assure you that we will meet there and will be members of the great European family,’’ Traian Basescu said.    

President Vladimir Voronin also stressed that this visit to Chisinau by Traian Basescu meant the end of a long period of unprecedented worsening of the relations between Moldova and Romania.

„I reached conclusion that it is not normal and neither it can further be like this that two neighbour countries are in a situation, as we called it, frozen or semi-frozen. We have a lot of things to do, especially on the way to the European Union. A lot of problems will be solved in the long run, for the benefit of our countries,’’ Vladimir Voronin said.   

Except for a riotous period, connected with the events from 7 April 2009, the relations between Moldova and Romania were permanently on the rise and the visit by Traian Basescu from 21 January 2005 represented a solid foundation for a beneficial strategic partnership for both countries.    

Chisinau, 21 January  /MOLDPRES/