The Republic of
\nMoldova is Bucharest’s absolute priority, said Romania’s prime minister Victor
\nPonta earlier this month at the annual meeting of Romanian diplomats, whom he
\nasked to promote Moldova’s interests as strongly as they would promote
\nRomania’s. Earlier, on the 27th of August, on the 24th
\nanniversary of Moldova’s independence from Moscow, Victor Ponta travelled to
\nChisinau. During talks with president Nicolae Timofti and his counterpart
\nValeriu Strelet, he again assured them of Romania’s support for their country’s
\nEuropean aspirations. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On Tuesday in Neptun, Ponta stated that Romania planned
\nto lend 150 million euros to Moldova for a period of five years, as well as to
\ngrant it non-reimbursable financing for future projects. He also said the
\ninterconnection of the two countries’ energy and natural gas systems was a
\nstrategic project that should be continued, so that Moldova could achieve
\nenergy independence. An encouraging sign in this respect is the interest shown
\nby leading Romanian companies in becoming involved in the privatisation process
\nin the neighbouring state. Moldova’s prime minister Valeriu Strelet said he would
\nlike Romania to become the biggest investor in Moldova and promised to grant
\nfacilities to Romanian companies wishing to invest in his country. Without
\nexplicitly naming Russia, the Moldovan prime minister said cutting its
\ndependence on a single provider would allow the Republic of Moldova to break
\nfree from an obsolete system. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
While the Romanian and Moldovan governments were
\nholding their joint meeting in Neptun, a rally was staged demanding the union
\nof the two states that would include not only energy interconnection, but also
\na single currency and a common foreign and defence policy. The representatives
\nof the protesters were received by the Romanian foreign and social dialogue
\nministers, Bogdan Aurescu and Liviu Pop, respectively, who promised to invite
\nthem to attend the future government meeting as representatives of civil
\nsociety. The talks between the two governments, usually dominated by a
\ncelebratory mood, were this time overshadowed by internal political problems. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Bucharest, Victor Ponta was indicted on Monday on charges of corruption,
\nwhile next week, his government will face a no-confidence motion. In Chisinau,
\nthousands of people gather every Sunday in the centre of the city to demand the
\nresignation of their government, which only came to power two months ago. The
\nthree-party coalition in Chisinau, which describes itself as pro-western, has
\nreceived a strong credibility blow following the mysterious disappearance from
\nthe banking system of 1 billion dollars, which accounts for 15% of Moldova’s
\nGDP. Little wonder, then, that voices were heard at the pro-union rally in
\nNeptun urging Romanian anticorruption prosecutors to cross the border.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania’s PM Victor Ponta and his Moldovan counterpart, Valeriu Strelet, met on Tuesday in the Romanian Black Sea resort of Neptun for what has already become a traditional joint meeting of the two countries’ governments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":65304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29297,38151,29369,29184],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-65303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-cooperation","tag-romania-moldova","tag-valeriu-strelet","tag-victor-ponta"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n