30 January 1995. President of Moldova Mircea Snegur meets President of United State Bill Clinton

The economic situation in Moldova was not bright. The Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova was having, along with the Unity-Edinstvo formation – belonging to the people with nostalgia for the former Soviet Union, a comfortable majority; yet, deep concepts and programmes on reforms and the country’s development were absent.

Nevertheless, the western countries were helping Moldova make progress on the way of liberalization of the political and economic spheres. In particular, a substantial assistance was coming on behalf of the USA. The Americans repeatedly declared their unconditional support for Moldova’s territorial integrity, acting to this end in diverse international institutions. And the economic agenda of the Moldovan-American relations was rich at that time. In 1993, 35 Moldovan-U.S. enterprises were working and the trade between the two countries was in a continuous growth. In 1992, this commerce stood at 11.5 million dollars, in 1993 - 15.1 million dollars and in 1994 – 22.4 million dollars. Moldova was benefitting from full support in the relations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  

In the context, President Snegur accepted the invitation by Bill Clinton and paid an official visit to Washington, during which the head of state had more important meetings. The most important meeting took place on 30 January 1995 at the White House, where Mircea Snegur was received by his American counterpart Bill Clinton. ‘’The American side showed living interest in the processes taking place in Moldova and the undersigned (Mircea Snegur – our note) being the one with the answers to questions, as well as pointing out our wishes,’’ Mircea Snegur wrote in his book.

The American assistance was concrete and quite solid for Moldova, which was just starting its transition to the market economy and was paying a quite difficult tribute to the destruction of the old command administrative system.

This is just a fragment of the joint declaration spread after the meeting, which confirms the friendly attitude of Washington towards Moldova: ‘’President Clinton highly appreciated the economic and political development in Moldova, which placed this country on a leading place among the new independent states of the former USSR and reiterated the position of the USA for Moldova in the carrying out of the reforms. President Clinton informed that Moldova would receive in 1995 22 million dollars for technical assistance, meant, first of all, for the privatization, economy’s reorganization, health care, foreign trade. This will increase the overall sum of the assistance provided to Moldova by the USA, starting from 1992, to more than 200 million dollars.

We can state with all confidence that the Clinton-Snegur meeting has broken the ice in the process of Moldova’s international self-assertion. After the legal recognition of Moldova’s independence, this Moldovan-American summit meant the de facto recognition of Moldova as actor of the international relations and stressed the West’s willingness to back the democratic and reform-oriented processes which Chisinau committed to carry out.

Chisinau, 21 January /MOLDPRES/.