The Ministries of Education of Moldova and Romania will sign a protocol of cooperation by the end of February. The document will regulate the exchange of students and the cooperation in the area of research between the two countries. The discussions on the protocol will start soon, Minister of Education Leonid Bujor said, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. Leonid Bujor announced that the Ministry of Education of Moldova drafted a protocol for 2010-2011, which allows increasing the number of Moldovan students who will study in Romania and of Romanian students who will study in Moldova. “The draft protocol was approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova. At the second stage, the parties will discuss the draft protocol and will sign it afterward,” the minister said “This protocol is necessary given the Romania-phobia promoted by the previous government. We must show that Moldova can have advantageous relations with the state with which we are united through history, culture and language. Moreover, we must show that Moldova can be friends with a country that is at the EU’s border,” Leonid Bujor said. The cooperation in education and research between the Governments of Moldova and Romania was raised by the Romanian President Traian Baescu, who had been on a two-day working visit to Moldova recently. Traian Basescu said the number of award-holding Moldovan young people who study at Romanian high schools and universities could be raised from 3,400 to 5,000.