The chairman of the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) Marian Lupu attended as a guest the Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), on whose sidelines he had useful meetings for his party and for the Republic of Moldova, including with Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the PDM.
In the course of the visit, Marian Lupu had meetings with Austria’s Ambassador designate to Moldova Christine Freilinger, the representative of the Chamber of Trade and Industry of Austria Rudolf Lukavsky, chairman of the SPÖ parliamentary group Andreas Schieder, Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Christine Muttonen, spokeswoman for external relations and european policies of the SPÖ parliamentary group Petra Bayr, who is a member of the Moldova-Austria Friendship Group, and Gerhard Marchl, the representative of Karl Renner Institut.
The leader of the PDM also had a discussion with Chancellor Christian Kern, who was elected as chairman of the SPÖ in the Congress. Christian Kern expressed his support for Moldova’s European course, showing his readiness to continue to provide assistance at official level and on party line so as to agree the forms of support for Moldova on the part of Austria.
For his part, Marian Lupu said that Austria is a strategic partner for Moldova, noting that a durable strategic partnership was established between the PDM and SPÖ, both at the level of the Party of European Socialists and at bilateral level.
In the discussions with representatives of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, Marian Lupu raised the subject of attraction of Austrian investment to Moldova’s economy and the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks in the 5+2 format. “We are to systemize the visits and consultations based on a number of political and economic subjects, especially concerning Moldova’s European integration,” stated Marian Lupu.
As to the results of the UK referendum, the Austrian partners said that despite this phenomenon, the Austrian Social-Democrats, as the European Social-Democrats, are more concentrated on strengthening and developing the European Union. “Brexit will not reorient the attention of the European partners from the Eastern Partnership, from the states that signed the Association Agreement and from the Republic of Moldova,” the Austrian Social-Democrats told Marian Lupu.
