The Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit in 2021 should lead to the opening up of new perspectives for extending the political dialogue and economic and sector cooperation with the European Union for the three associate partners – the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia. This is the view of the ministers of foreign affairs of the three counties. Aureliu Ciocoi, Dmytro Kuleba and David Zakaliani spoke about this in a vide conference held on January 14 in connection with Moldova’s initiative to identify common approaches in the context of the EaP Summit of this year, IPN reports.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova Aureliu Ciocoi and his counterparts considered possibilities of strengthening cooperation between the states in the efforts made to prepare for participation in the EaP summit. Minister Ciocoi reiterated Moldova’s position on the future of the EaP, underlining the country’s interest in an ambitious cooperation framework, which would offer the partner countries the possibility of fully exploiting the advantages offered by the association with the European Union.

In a press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration said the Republic of Moldova hopes the Summit’s results will contribute to developing political and economic cooperation on the Partnership’s platform and would encourage continuous rapprochement between the EU associated countries. Aureliu Ciocoi put forward a series of proposals to combine the diplomatic efforts of the associate partners and the counterparts supported them.

Aureliu Ciocoi, Dmytro Kuleba and David Zalkaliani agreed to step up efforts to promote the common positions and approaches in the context of the preparations for the EaP Summit both in the dialogue with the European institutions and in the dialogue with the EU member states.

Launched in 2009 as a joint policy initiative, the Eastern Partnership aims to boost political and economic ties between the EU, its member states and its six Eastern neighbors: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.

The next EaP Summit is set to analyze the results achieved since the last summit, of 2017, to approve the long-term objectives, to agree the path for strengthening cooperation and also a new, post-2020 generation of deliverables.