The United States will add additional funding to Moldova’s effort to develop competitiveness, which is key to businesses and to economic prospects, and will add another $2.8 million to an already $4.7 million for a total of about $7.5 million to help in this particular transition, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a conference held jointly with Prime Minister Iurie Leanca in Washington, IPN reports.

John Kerry told the journalists they are very pleased with the fact that the Moldovan authorities have continued their efforts to move towards their Association Agreement with Europe. “We are very interested in helping the Prime Minister in his efforts to continue with his anti-corruption initiatives in the country,” he stated.

“While I was in Moldova I had an occasion to visit a really rather remarkable winery, quite a spectacular underground facility. This is one of the great products that they are now exporting, and we’re excited about the prospects of their ability to broaden that market. There are challenges. I regret to say that Russia, in some of the challenges we’re seeing right now in Ukraine, has put pressure on Moldova. There are challenges with respect to their energy sources and also their ability to trade. But we are committed firmly to the direction that Moldovans have chosen for themselves and their government has expressed a desire to pursue.”

Iurie Leanca expressed his gratitude to the U.S. Administration, to the U.S. people, for the generous support they have provided to Moldova during the almost 23 years of independence, in building functioning institutions, a pluralistic and tolerant society. “Today we are just supposed to launch the Strategic Dialogue. Of course, we want the government’s Strategic Dialogue to make sure that there are working groups on various issues – energy. Moldova is very keen to build an energy interconnection with European Union, and American support is critical in this respect. The same is about the security cooperation,” he stated.

The head of Government referred also to the situation in Ukraine, saying that despite the small size, Moldova has a common border with Ukraine of 1,242 kilometers and everything that happens in Ukraine is extremely important to Moldova, to the future of Moldova.