The Republic of Moldova is fully committed to achieving the highest democratic standards. The country has functional democratic institutions and a competitive electoral environment, while the freedoms of assembly, expression and religion are guaranteed and protected. The statements were made in New York by Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Nicu Popescu.
The top Moldovan diplomat attended, as a special guest of Romania, the event of handing over the presidency of the Community of Democracies from the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mélanie Joly, in a ceremony held at the UN headquarters. “I am confident that the next presidency, held by Canada, with its robust democracy, will play a key role in the global promotion and protection of human rights and democracy,” Nicu Popescu was quoted in a press release.
The Deputy Prime Minister had a meeting with Nikos Dendias, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, with whom he discussed the reform agenda for the irreversible process of European accession of the Republic of Moldova. The parties addressed the implementation by the authorities of the action plan through the nine steps requested by the European Commission and the alignment of Moldovan internal and external policy with the European values shared by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova.
Minister Popescu met in New-York with Nikola Selaković, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, both expressing interest in strengthening the Moldovan-Serbian dialogue, especially on the economic dimension. “We have agreed to start negotiations for an agreement that will provide more affordable prices for roaming services paid for by citizens traveling between our states. We will also exchange bilateral visits to Chisinau and Belgrade to boost the Moldovan-Serbian dialogue”, noted the Moldovan official.
In New York, Nicu Popescu met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. The officials took stock of the mutual high-level visits of recent years, and discussed the need for the continuous capitalization of the strategic cooperation between both countries, especially on the economic, investment and tourism dimensions. “We have set new cooperation goals for the next period, including ensuring energy security, the socio-economic impact of war and other topics of common interest. I discussed with the minister the evolution of security in the region, with Turkey playing an important role in identifying solutions for the global food crisis caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine”, emphasized Nicu Popescu.
The Deputy Prime Minister had a meeting for the first time with Ayman Al Safadi, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan, a country with which this year we mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. “We have proposed to work together with our teams to promote tourism, increase exports of Moldovan agri-food products to Jordan and increase contacts between businessmen from our states”, said the foreign minister.
At the meeting with the Minister of International Cooperation of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Rania Al-Mashat, a topic of increased interest was the relaunch of negotiations on a free trade agreement, which will substantially contribute to the consolidation of commercial-economic relations and generate new opportunities for the agricultural sector interested in the Egyptian market.
Nicu Popescu participated in New York at the informal meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs from the member states of the Central European Initiative. He met with Mark Simakovsky, the USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia, but also with Eric Swalwell, member of the US House of Representatives, Special Committee on Intelligence and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Modernization and Training.
