Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Andrei Galbur and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, after a meeting in Moscow, said the dialogue was productive, especially after the hiatus, and the bilateral relations should be fostered. The two welcomed the meeting and voiced hope that the dialogue will continue. In his connection, Andrei Galbur invited Sergei Lavrov to visit Moldova, IPN reports.
After the meeting, the two officials signed a plan of consultations between the two ministries for 2016-2017. At the press conference given after the meeting, Andrei Galbur said that the relations between the foreign affairs and economy ministries were restored in several weeks.
“The goal of my visit was to give a new impetus to these relations. The Russian Federation is a traditional partner and we expressed interest in restoring these relations. We want to fully realize the possibilities of exporting to the Russian market. We hope the dialogue between specialists will enable to remove those fears that made the Russian side to impose particular barriers on the Moldovan products,” he stated.
Andrei Galbur underlined the necessity of developing mechanism for protecting the migrants given that a large number of Moldovans work in Russia. The two officials also discussed the Transnistrian issue, stressing the importance of resuming the talks in the 5+2 format.
Sergei Lavrov said they agreed that the current bilateral relations are not of the appropriate level. “We were assured that the new Government of Moldova is interested in having good relations with Russia and we welcome this. We also discussed the economic and commercial relations and the signing of the Moldova – EU Association Agreement as this had a negative influence on the bilateral trade, which fell by almost one third,” he stated.
He added that they agreed to implement the document on the mutual recognition of documents of studies signed in 2005. “We highlighted the necessity of maintaining the relations so as to improve the situation of migrants and to ensure clarity for the Moldovans who work in Russia,” said Sergei Lavrov.
As to the Transnistrian conflict settlement process, the Russian official said that Moscow supports the ‘small steps’ approach that enables to take important actions and is for giving a special legal status within the Republic of Moldova to the Transnistrian region.
