Moldovan foreign affairs minister has meeting with Polish diplomacy head

Chisinau, 25 March /MOLDPRES/ - Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Nicu Popescu today hosted OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Foreign Affairs Minister of Poland Zbigniew Rau, the Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry’s (MAEIE) press service has reported.  

The officials tackled the Transnistrian conflict settlement process, as well as aspects of the regional security, ways of boosting the Moldovan-Polish dialogue and Moldova’s European integration agenda.

„I talked with Mr. Minister the Transnistrian settlement process. Our approach is known – we want settlement by peaceful means, through negotiations and the solution should be based on the principle of sovereignty, territorial integrity the internationally recognized borders of Moldova, with the observance of the fundamental human rights and freedoms in the Transnistrian region and all over the country,’’ Nicu Popescu said.

The deputy PM reiterated the consistent position of the Moldovan authorities as to the need to finish the withdrawal of the Russian troops and ammunitions, which do not have legal status in Moldova.

„The new insecurity context affects the population of our countries to equal extent. In our discussions, we expressed a quite clear stance of condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and voiced our firm support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the neighboiur country,’’ the Moldovan diplomacy head stressed.  

Moldova and Poland are the worst hit states by the unprecedented humanitarian crisis and they host the largest number of Ukrainian refugees, as compared to the population of the two states. According to the authorities, in March 2022, more than 375,000 people crossed the border of Moldova and over 100,000 found shelter in Moldova – the absolute majority are women and children.  

At the bilateral level, Minister Nicu Popescu expressed thanks for the financial support worth 20 million euros, announced by Poland’s government, which will be used for economic recovery.

„Also today we talked about our firm intention to bring Moldova into the European Union. Poland was vocal and firmly, consistently backed our European aspirations for many years, including after the submission of the application on accession to EU on 3 March 2022.

I have recently returned from Brussels and the fact that we are expected in the European family remains incontestable. We are Europeans in terms of civilization, we have a European history, we speak an official language of EU,’’ Deputy PM Nicu Popescu said.  

The official appreciated the EU’s solidarity both at the political level and through the reception and relocation of refugees to member states. Today, 11 EU states and Norway expressed willingness to relocate Ukrainian refugees. More than 260,000 people arrived in EU member states by transiting Moldova.  

„The European integration is our strategic priority and we have a clear understanding – it will not happen overnight – we must continue the agenda of reforms and modernization of Moldova in accelerated pace,’’ Minister Nicu Popescu added.

Photo: MAEIE