The Czech government recently announced that the Republic of Moldova is a priority state for development cooperation, but the Czech state is concerned about particular developments in Moldova, Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Chisinau Zdeněk Krejčí, stated in an interview entitled “People from small countries cannot afford the luxury of quarreling between them over basic issues” that was given to IPN Agency.
“Moldova formed part of our cooperation priorities in the previous cycle as well, from 2013 until 2017. This year the Government approved the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ and the Czech Development Agency’s proposal to keep this status of Moldova for the next period. Moldova is rather close to us as we had that common past – 40 years in the Socialist camp – and we want to offer support for Moldova to stand up and reach the European standards, the European living conditions. This is the main direction of our program. There are two main principles based on which we choose the directions as it is clear we cannot be equally active in everything and need to specialize. Firstly, these are sectors where the Moldovans are interested in our assistance and cooperation. Secondly, these are areas where we have relevant experience and covered a similar road or explored similar circumstances to develop. So, there is a lot we could offer. We have positive examples and also negative examples of what ways should not be followed because they are not efficient,” said the Czech diplomat.
The diplomat characterized the Moldovan-Czech relations as very good even if his country, as a member of the EU, shares the concerns about particular developments in the Republic of Moldova formulated by European institutions recently.
“We have very good bilateral relations and close cooperation. We hope we will continue this cooperation with the government that will be formed after the elections. We form part of the European Union and when EU decisions on Moldova are formulated, these contain our position too. There are elements that generate enough concerns. I refer in particular to the Chisinau mayoral elections. We also follow the campaign prior to the parliamentary elections of February 2019 that already started unofficially. We will also attentively follow the elections,” stated Zdeněk Krejčí.
Another concern is related to the so-called “theft of the US$ 1 billion” and the Czech Republish is ready to share its experience in preventing or solving such problems or problems of such a scale.
“These problems, especially those concerning large-scale economic crimes, do not have simple solutions that can be ensured by adopting one law or another. An honest and transparent system is needed and we try to enable the citizens to see what is going on in the country, how the public funds are spent and also to make sure that the courts of law work properly and obey the law. But this is a long-lasting process and we cannot say that we fully covered the distance, but we move on. We also made mistakes, but the “theft of the US$ 1 billion” is not a mistake. It is something else,” the ambassador stated in the interview for IPN.
