Maia Sandu’s presidency marks unprecedented openness in relation to our country. The participants in the EU Debates Café entitled “Immediate Priorities of the Republic of Moldova’s Foreign Policy”, staged by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), noted that after four years of blocking of Moldova’s foreign relations at high level, when the President of the Republic of Moldova made no official visit to foreign states and received no visits of counterparts from the neighboring states in Chisinau, a completely different situation is prefigured now. Moreover, the experience and ties of Maia Sandu could be used to improve the situation in our country.
The experts agreed that the priorities formulated by Maia Sandu in relation to Romania and Ukraine as the neighboring countries, to the EU and U.S. as strategic partners and to Russia as a factor of influence have formed part of the country’s agenda for years.
Speaking about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration’s role in promoting the country’s foreign agenda, Ambassador with Special Missions Andrei Popov underlined the importance of the cooperation between the state institutions and of maintaining a common narrative outside. “A dialogue between states is built during years, but can be reduced to zero overnight,” said the diplomat, noting that the lack of cooperation between the presidential administration, Parliament and the Government is substituted by unilateral “initiatives”.
Nicu Popescu, ex-minister of foreign affairs in Maia Sandu’s Government and projects director at “Extended Europe” in Paris, said a profound disaster has been witnessed on the foreign policy segment during the past four years and in the period Moldova remained without a partner on which it could bank. Domestic reforms should be made to remedy the situation. Without them, the partnership with the EU and the U.S. and also with Russia will not work.
Cristina Gherasimov, researcher at the Robert Bosch Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia (DGAP, Berlin), noted the snap parliamentary elections can generate political will to resuscitate the Republic of Moldova. The state should be connected to the political realities and should stop the useless discussion on the followed course. In 2021, the Association Agreement with the EU is to be renegotiated and Ukraine, for example, struggles for each point, defending in Brussels it national interest. In Chisinau, the agreement is not at the forefront.
Leonid Litra, senior researcher at the New Europe Center in Kiev, said the agenda of the sensitive issues existing between Chisinau and Kiev is not simpler than that between Chisinau and Moscow. Given that both of the states have the European integration as an objective, there are tangent things on which work should be done. There are optimism and good signs, but this does not imply appropriate results. Zelensky’s intransigency as to smuggling can intersect with the plans of the new Moldovan President on the Transnistrian segment of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. Instead, no solution can be expected to the Nistru problem, where Moldova is preoccupied with ecological issues, while Ukraine wants energy results. The EU’s involvement in the dialogue can be beneficial.
Victor Chirilă, executive director of the Foreign Policy Association, said the decisions assumed by Parliament during the last few days deepened the ruptures that appeared in the relations with the U.S., the EU over the last four years. “The Plahotniuc-Shor-Dodon triangle involved the state institutions in a war so as to bar Maia Sandu as President,” he stated. According to him, things can be changed through snap parliamentary elections that would bring a pro-European alliance to power. In another development, the expert said the diplomatic service should be reformed so that reliable persons devoted to the national interest come to the system.
