State Secretary of North Carolina Elaine F. Marshall received Moldova’s Order of Honor in recognition of her exceptional contribution and consistent commitment to strengthening partnership and cooperation relations between Moldova and the State of North Carolina, Info-Prim Neo learned from a press release of the Moldovan Embassy in the US. The award ceremony took place on Thursday, December 22, at the Moldovan Embassy in Washington, DC. The event brought together members of the Embassy, former US ambassadors, representatives of the State Department, Governor’s Office of North Carolina, friends and members of the Moldovan community in the US. Moldovan Ambassador in the U.S. Igor Munteanu said that this order proved that Moldovan authorities recognized the devotion, sensibility and will shown by Elaine Marshall, who had become a true friend of our country. According to the press release, thousands of Moldovan and American citizens met, befriended and built long-term relationships of trust and respect as a result of programs ran by Moldova and North Carolina during the 12 years of cooperation. As chairwoman of the Bilateral Cooperation Committee, the State Secretary of North Carolina personally participated in numerous actions that helped Moldova, including by advocating the annulment of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment with respect to Moldova. The partnership between North Carolina and the Republic of Moldova was officially launched in 1996 as an experience exchange between militaries from both states. Since April 1999, it extended towards a larger area of bilateral cooperation: university education, cultural exchanges, economic relations, public healthcare, charity actions and other domains. In 2004, North Carolina and Moldova created the Bilateral Cooperation Committee aimed to evaluate results and boost bilateral actions. Each year, public and private organizations implement tens of bilateral cooperation projects in their domains of interest according to available resources. The last meeting of the North Carolina-Moldova Bilateral Committee took place in June 2011 in Chisinau.