Deputy Prime Minister on visit of Afghan delegation: Visa issuance procedures fully respected. No violations of legal provisions found

The visa issuance procedures for the members of the delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture from Afghanistan were fully respected. According to preliminary information, there was no violation of legal provisions. The clarifications were made today by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mihai Popșoi, after the Cabinet meeting.

The official stressed that the issuance of visas is a technical process carried out on the basis of clearly established procedures.

“In this process, the following are involved: the technical officer and the head of the directorate. The minister is not consulted in the process of issuing visas. It is a technical procedure, and hundreds of visas are issued every week. The disciplinary commission will analyze each stage and we will ensure that, if there were any possible irregularities, they will be sanctioned. According to preliminary information, there was no violation of legal provisions. Procedures were followed to the letter, but we are again convinced that there is a difference between legality and political expediency. In this case, better coordination could have helped. As the prime minister mentioned yesterday, Vasile Tofan, it was an unfortunate situation that must be avoided in the future,” Mihai Popșoi said.

The minister emphasized that the intention of the visit was to strengthen trade relations, both in terms of possible purchases of food products, cereals, or other goods through UN humanitarian programs, and in terms of direct commercial transactions between economic agents.

“We cannot know the exact purpose. As far as we know, this is not an official delegation. I want to believe that, throughout the entire process, there were good intentions both on the part of our colleagues from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry who, as they have also explained publicly, aimed to support farmers in the Republic of Moldova in increasing exports, and on the part of the staff of the MFA. All clearances, including those issued by security-related institutions, were positive. Legal consultations and clearances are carried out by the General Inspectorate for Migration and the General Inspectorate of the Border Police, which work closely with the Intelligence and Security Service. Therefore, all procedures and stages provided by law were respected,” Mihai Popșoi underlined.

The deputy prime minister mentioned that since the beginning of this year, 130 visas have been issued for Afghan citizens, of which approximately 120 are transit visas intended for the use of services at Chișinău International Airport.

“Just yesterday, a visa was issued for a person with dual Afghan and Iranian citizenship, a football player at a club in Europe, who is to come to the Republic of Moldova. It is a routine procedure. All stages were respected, but, as I was saying, there is a difference between legality and political expediency that the officials involved in this process must understand better,” Mihai Popșoi concluded.

A delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture from Afghanistan made a visit to Chișinău in the context of discussions on possible humanitarian exports of agricultural products.

The MFA announced that “the delegation is not subject to international sanctions” and that “our country strictly observes international sanctions regimes and does not recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan”. The MFA specified that, during the visit, “there will be no bilateral meetings or official contacts with representatives of the delegation”. The institution also mentioned that “the Government has ordered verification of how the invitation and visas were issued, as well as a review of internal procedures”.

Prime Minister Vasile Tofan stressed that “the Republic of Moldova does not recognize the Taliban government, and the approval of this visit was an error of assessment and institutional coordination.”