The Republic of Moldova, a priority for Romania’s foreign policy

Romania supports the Republic of Moldova in the latters efforts to stay on course for European integration.

Valentin Țigău, 16.03.2015, 12:44

A human chain formed on Sunday ran all the way from the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Bucharest to the front gate of the Moldovan Embassy. This action of solidarity was aimed at convincing the authorities to lift passport restrictions for crossing the Romanian-Moldovan border on Prut river. The organisers of the event, the Actiunea 2012 Platform, whose underlying objective is the re-unification of Romania and Moldova, says it filed a number of requests with the Romanian Foreign Ministry and the Moldovan Embassy to Bucharest with a view to granting EU citizens free access to Moldova based on either a passport or an ID card. The Moldovan Youth Organisation also filed a similar request with the Moldovan and Romanian Foreign Ministries.

Actiunea 2012 members say Romanian citizens can travel freely to 58 destinations using their ID cards only, which makes holding a passport almost useless. Many Romanians actually have their passports issued particularly to cross into Moldova. Additionally, organisation members say Romania is Moldova’s main trade partner at present, followed by other European Union states. Without support from the European Union and Romania, Moldova could never have coped with the Russian ban on wine and fruit. Lifting passport restrictions on border crossings would render the access of EU citizens to the Republic of Moldova much easier.

Last week, Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman met Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu in Bucharest. The two reviewed the main topics on the bilateral agenda, with a special focus on Romania’s support for Moldova’s pro-European actions. Bogdan Aurescu, speaking to Radio Romania:

“On the sidelines of our meeting, we also met the Mixed Committee for European Integration which both myself and Minister Gherman chair. Taking part in this meeting were eight institutions from Romania and Moldova each. We tackled joint cooperation projects with utmost pragmatism. I have been conveyed a message of firm commitment by my Moldovan counterpart as well as the other participant institutions to maintain Moldova on its European track”.

The integration of Romania’s neighbour, amidst security threats from the post-Soviet geo-political space, is also high on the agenda of the Informal Group for Moldova’s European Action, which will meet this year at the initiative of Romania and France.