Lazar Comanescu: Romania will further support Moldova in its getting closer to EU

“Romania will strongly support Moldova further in the latter's getting closer to the EU, in making quicker steps,” stated Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu during his visit to Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. He and his Moldovan counterpart Andrei Stratan made statements for the media, but avoided to answer journalists' questions, especially concerning the possible signature of the Border Treaty and of the Convention on border minor traffic. “I have come to Chisinau as a representative of a member country of the EU for 1.5 years for meetings with representatives from a country aspiring to become a EU member, and the aspiration is strongly supported by Romania,” Lazar Comanescu has said. He says Romania will much insist that the reflection period to sign a new document between Moldova and the EU is as short as possible. Romania sees Moldova's perspective of getting closer to the EU similar with the prospect of the countries from the Western Balkans.” Andrei Stratan has said that the Moldovan Foreign Ministry is confident that, because of the positive result of cooperating with the EU, the next document is going to be more advanced from the political viewpoint.” According to the two officials, they have also discussed the legal frame of the Moldo-Romanian relationship. “Progress is made in this direction, and I am confident, in a reasonable time, by joint efforts, we'll get positive results,” Comanescu remarked. “It's very important we agreed to continue the dialog to identify the problems still there and I am confident this will be a success,” Andrei Stratan has said. According to him, they have pointed out the high level of the cooperation between the two countries within regional institutions, including the ones chaired by Moldova in 2008 and 2009. Lazar Comanescu says he has “confirmed Romania's very categorical support for the solution of the Transnistrian conflict in the 5+2 format of the talks, as this is essential to reach a solution matching the interests of the Moldovan citizens.” The Romanian Minister of External Affairs has pointed out that the things go very well in the economic area, the trade of the two countries going up to $1 billion. The Romanian official hopes it will soon reach 1 billion euros. The sides have agreed that Romania and Moldova should do more to develop the relationships of the small and medium enterprises, to carry out joint projects related to the preparation for integrating into the EU such areas as agriculture, infrastructure, energy security. The Romanian FM has met with Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, speaker Marian Lupu, premier Zinaida Greceanai, first deputy premier Igor Dodon. Lazar Comanescu will be accompanied by Andrei Stratan in visiting the Romanian consulate to Chisinau.