In an interview with IPN News Agency, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova Mihai Popșoi referred to the evolution of foreign policy and diplomatic relations, the EU accession process, as well as the political and electoral challenges and the Russian Federation’s interference.
To summarize your work and the work of the institution you lead, how intense was it in 2024? What impact do the visits abroad have on Moldovan diplomacy, on the country as a whole, but also on the citizens?
Naturally, it was an intense year, a year commensurate with the challenges our country is facing. But thanks to the professionalism and selflessness shown by the diplomats of the Republic of Moldova, we ache dived remarkable successes, I say, considering the increase of the diplomatic presence of the Republic of Moldova. The opening of the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova in Astana, Kazakhstan, was announced this year and will take place in the coming weeks. Soon, we will have a consular office in the U.S., in Chicago. We want to further increase the diplomatic presence in order to be closer to our citizens, to deliver quality consular services close to our citizens. Also, to strengthen the political relations with partner countries and, especially, to promote economic diplomacy, to attract investments, to promote exports. This is what we succeed in.
If we look at the export statistics, we have positive dynamics in the relations with a number of important partners. India is a good example of this. With many European countries we have positive dynamics in the field of economic relations. In the field of political relations, we have excellent relations with all European countries and we are in a position to preserve them.
We now have the capacity to focus on less traditional geographies for our diplomacy as well. We make effort to strengthen the relations and we succeed, with countries such as Japan, which I recently visited. We seek to strengthen the relations with Central Asia, as I said, including by opening the Embassy in Astana.
I recently had a meeting with the foreign minister of South Korea, an extremely important country with an extremely high economic and investment capacity. These partnerships, these relations are reflected in positive economic dynamics, of trade. There are constantly growing dynamics not only with the EU countries or the countries of the Euro-Atlantic community, but also with the Asian countries, for example.
We would like to increase our presence on other continents as well. In the future, we would like a diplomatic presence at least in Egypt, with which we have close economic relations and there is a large presence of our tourists there. And it would be good to be able to provide them with consular services. There are requests from our diaspora from Australia and South America. Unfortunately, we do not currently have these resources, but, in the future, we must certainly have the ambition to pursue a global foreign policy, in line with the expectations of our citizens who are all over the world.
What was the most important event for the Republic of Moldova in the field of foreign relations this year?
Probably, the most important event is the one that was held in September, in Chisinau – the Moldova Partnership Platform - which until recently was called the Support Platform. Its concept was rethought. We seek to move from a mechanism of cooperation with our partners based on crises or on combating them to medium and long-term planning, based on a path of development. This Platform brought together representatives from about 65 countries, including six foreign ministers, in Chisinau, which is a remarkable achievement. We welcomed our good friends from Romania, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland.
Thanks to the presence of our friends at such a high level, there were offers of support, financial support for the Republic of Moldova, which makes us happy and these resources come to help Moldova, whether it goes to the Energy Vulnerability Fund, to support the citizens in difficult times, or to investments in infrastructure, building of the resilience of the defense and security sector, especially in the cyber domain, where there are great needs. All these successes are to a certain extent the result of the diplomatic activity and professionalism of our diplomats.
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If we refer to the opening of negotiations with the European Union, in June 2024, what is the role and contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the European integration process?
If we speak in general, then naturally the negotiation process is a very important moment. At the same time, the opening of negotiations is a moment in a whole series of events: submitting the application for membership, acceptance, offering the prospect of accession, starting negotiations. We hope to open the first clusters, the first chapters as soon as possible. It is an ongoing process, which will take time, but it is certainly an important achievement of our diplomatic service.
As you know, last year there was this separation, between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Integration Office. We have close cooperation relations between the two institutes. There is a synergy between the MFA and the EIO. The Office has an express mandate to negotiate. The MFA, preserving and strengthening the partnership and friendly relations with the EU countries, surely contributes directly to the quality of this process. We are well aware that, if God forbid, the relationship with any EU country worsens, this does not help the European integration process in any way.
That is why our mandate is of the utmost importance to preserve and improve where we can the relations with the EU member states so that this facilitates the process of European integration. Moreover, the political dialogue with the EU and the security dialogue remains within the MFA's remit. It is an extremely important milestone for our country. For example, we have important successes in this dialogue. We signed the first agreement in the history of the European Union, the Security and Defense Partnership, after which this model agreement was replicated with other partners, such as Japan, Norway.
In fact, within the framework of political and security dialogue, remarkable successes have been achieved in recent years within the European Peace Facility, which provided colossal support to the Republic of Moldova to strengthen the defense capabilities. These results are the fruit of the work of our diplomats, of the colleagues from the Ministry of Defense. In point of fact, the political and security dialogue is the foundation of our relationship with the EU, if we talk about the advancement of friendship and partnership relations, which, in turn, are the foundation of the European accession process.
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2024 was also marked by the presidential election and the constitutional referendum on joining the EU. You mentioned on several occasions that democracy in Moldova "resisted, despite the Kremlin's attacks". What challenges do you think await us in the coming year, which is also an electoral one, and what needs to be done to mitigate the risks or, perhaps, to prevent them?
We must continue to strengthen the resilience of the Republic of Moldova, of the state institutions, of society as a whole. We are doing this and we are seeing results. The citizens of the Republic of Moldova are increasingly difficult to attract into these malignant narratives of the Russian Federation. It is true that there is still a lot of work to be done so that fewer and fewer citizens allow to be lured by these "siren songs" or empty promises. They should not be scared of the Russian Federation because this is also one of the stakes of the Kremlin's propaganda - to create anxiety in our society, to create division, hatred.
It is our responsibility to communicate pro-actively so as to debunk these narratives of the Kremlin and nurture trust among the citizens, to strengthen good understanding among our citizens, to strengthen trust and respect in front of the state institutions, which is a continuous activity and I would like to believe that the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, over time, become more and more immune to this external interference. But there is certainly still a lot of work to be done, both on the communication side and on practical aspects – the daily activity. Only by demonstrating results in the professional activity of each branch of power, of each state institution, by delivering results and acting in a manner that meets the expectations of the citizens, we can strengthen trust in the Republic of Moldova, in state institutions.
The Russian Federation will try its best to reduce this trust, to somehow weaken this national unity that we have and want to consolidate as much as possible. It is a continuous struggle, if you want, and our responsibility, including of our diplomatic service, is to combat these narratives externally, because it also happens that some of our partners sometimes end up asking themselves particular questions about some of the narratives. That is why we must have the capacity and we do it proactively so that we do not leave room for ambiguity and particular interpretations based on these malignant narratives.
In 2025, the parliamentary elections are very important both for the ruling party, of which you are a member, and for Moscow, which will endeavor to promote its allies. How real do you think is a scenario in which the Republic of Moldova ends up fighting for democracy, as the Georgians are doing now? Does Chisinau have a plan to prevent Russian intervention in the upcoming elections in Moldova?
We were in the situation of Georgia. We were extremely close or, perhaps, even surpassed the situation of Georgia. Namely, until 2019, when we had a pro-Russian President, we had a political system completely out of line with the European values. There were increasingly negative dynamics and, at some point, we would have inevitably reached an anchorage in the eastern space because the EU was already sending very trenchant messages, including, if we remember, after the cancellation of the Chisinau mayoral elections in 2018. We were moving quite quickly in that direction and only thanks to favorable circumstances, which were the emanation of our society, those constant protests, that political consolidation that was shown, we managed to put the Republic of Moldova on the path of normality, on the path of European integration and that was a lesson in 2019, but in fact of all these 30 years of Independence, where we oscillated from right to left, from East to West, without remarkable results.
Now we see clearly that the Republic of Moldova is a country that is negotiating the accession to the European Union. It already has a realistic ambition to be part of the EU in 2030. It is already demonstrating results, not only in the accession process, but also in the strengthening of state institutions, in line with the European values. The citizens certainly see this, appreciate it and this was also seen in the referendum on joining the EU, which was not easy.
But the majority of our citizens came out in favor of EU integration, despite a furious attack on democracy, on the legitimate aspiration of our citizens to be part of the big European family. That is why I do not want to believe that our citizens will end up in a situation where they will support, for one reason or another, a return to the past, a return to that period of uncertainty, to the period of instability and a slide towards the eastern space, a slide towards authoritarianism, towards dictatorship, towards the flagrant violation of human rights, that period of sad fame that we went through until 2019.
Especially since we see this enormous openness among our European, Euro-Atlantic partners. I don't want to imagine what would have happened to the Republic of Moldova in these few years due to the successive crises we faced in the energy sector, the inflationary one, caused by the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine and energy blackmail. What would have happened if there had not been this generous unconditional support of our European and Euro-Atlantic partners.
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We all witnessed the phenomena that marked the electoral campaign in Romania. Do you see any tangency with the Republic of Moldova? What is being done to eradicate foreign interference in internal processes?
If we look at the result on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, the Romanian citizens in Moldova had an exemplary vote. It contrasted enormously with the vote of other citizens, both from Romania and from the rest of the diaspora. That is why I would like to say that I am proud of the way the Romanians in Moldova voted in the presidential and parliamentary elections, demonstrating much greater responsibility for the fate of Romania, for the prospects of the region as a whole. They had a much more informed, much more thoughtful approach. This honors us all. This shows that something is being done well in the Republic of Moldova.
Certainly, there is room for improvement in the Republic of Moldova, and elsewhere. But it is up to the Romanian political system to adjust, to draw the necessary conclusions. Of course, for us it is extremely important that there is political stability in Romania, that there is a responsible pro-European parliamentary majority, anchored in a democratic process, in a process of strengthening the institutions of the Romanian state, a process of firm anchoring of Romania in the Euro-Atlantic space, which has happened. We are firmly convinced that it will happen from now on. This unfortunate situation in the presidential election was somehow remedied by that decision of the Constitutional Court, unanimous in fact, by virtue of what appeared in the public space, of the way in which the democratic process was diverted in that election, with those interferences that were proven and demonstrated in the public space.
To return to the Moldovan-Russian relations, how do Chisinau and Moscow communicate now? In the public discourse, we see that there is little room for diplomacy and we understand that this diplomacy plays its role in discussions about which we, the journalists and citizens, know less.
The Moldovan-Russian relations continue to be at the lowest level in our recent history. It is something that reflects a sad reality, a reality that we cannot change, unfortunately. The only country that can change this reality is the Russian Federation. As long as the massacre of civilians in Ukraine and the destruction of civilian objects, energy infrastructure continue, it is difficult to imagine that we could improve the relations with the Russian Federation.
The Republic of Moldova is a peaceful state, a state that wants to have good relations with everyone. We have a diaspora in the Russian Federation, we have particular economic relations, but we cannot get over this extremely regrettable reality, in which the Russian Federation continues in an insistent, cynical way to destroy, to annihilate a neighboring state, a friendly state. That is why communication, as I said, is limited only to contacts with their embassy here, on the spot. Most of the times, it goes to protest notes, the summoning of the ambassador or chargé d'affaires to the MFA to be presented with these protest notes.
And the other types of communication take place in the public space and through press releases, most of the times through responses to the attacks coming from the Russian Foreign Ministry. We try to be diplomatic, as much as we can.
The Russian Federation and the Russian Foreign Ministry have long since given up diplomacy. They are, in fact, promoters of the war, of the Kremlin. They gave up diplomacy a long time ago. We continue to defend the interests of the Republic of Moldova and our citizens and we will respond every time to these unjustified attacks by the MFA of the Russian Federation, but we have long found that they do not belong to themselves, they are not an independent entity and they do not promote diplomacy in the broad sense of the word, but they promote the war and this is clear to everyone.
It's understandable to everyone that we would like an improvement and we are willing to do everything for this improvement, but this must somehow be a two-way move, a reciprocal move. At the moment, we do not see such a desire on the part of the Russian Federation and this lack of desire is seen in abundance daily in Ukraine. On the contrary, lately we have seen an escalation of the conflict through those furious attacks by Russia against Ukraine's energy infrastructure. All this also affects the Republic of Moldova.
On the energy subject, are there discussions about offering of support to the Republic of Moldova in this cold season, as it happened in previous years?
This is the main contribution of our diplomacy, when it comes to improving the energy crisis, the MFA's contribution being to attract resources to replace that Energy Vulnerability Fund and to strengthen the energy infrastructure of the Republic of Moldova. For example, that strategic project for us – the energy interconnection with the Romanian space and with the European space, the Isaccea-Vulcănești high-voltage line and the other high-voltage line that was to be built to the north. These investments in the energy security of the Republic of Moldova are, to a certain extent, also the fruit of our diplomats’ work.
Now, of course, we focus on attracting funds. Lately, these have come from a number of partners, including the Support Platform. Until then and since then, support packages have been declared and offered by a whole host of European partners. We appreciate them very much.
The U.S. recently gave us $80 million to build the resilience of our state. We continue to strengthen the relationships with our partners, including to obtain this support. Thanks to international partners, development partners, we managed to overcome that colossal crisis in which we found ourselves two years ago, when we were blackmailed.
The Kremlin hoped that it would be able to bring us to our knees, that it would be able to divert us from our European integration course. Yes, it didn't succeed. It will not succeed this time either, thanks to the unity of our society, the resilience of state institutions and, of course, thanks to the generous support of our partners.
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What priorities did the MFA set for the coming year?
We have a full agenda, at least for the first half of the year. But it is a continuous work process. As we have demonstrated results this year, we will continue to deliver results in line with the expectations of our citizens, both in strengthening political relations with partner countries, in strengthening economic and cultural diplomacy, in the European integration process, of course, but also in broadening the ambitions and horizons of our diplomatic service.
This year we have signed an extremely important agreement with Saudi Arabia – the Basic Political Agreement - which opens up great opportunities for cooperation with this country. We will work to increase the presence of the Republic of Moldova and strengthen our anchoring in Central Asia, where there are equally great opportunities. We will work to be more present and more anchored in the Middle East, in the Arab world.
And the opening of an embassy of Israel in Chisinau soon is a great achievement and a thing that will cement our relations with Israel, where we have economic and political interests, we have a diaspora.
Thus, a number of embassies were opened or announced in 2024 – in Ireland, Greece, Denmark, Norway, etc. This proves that the Republic of Moldova is on the right track. We are on the path of normality, development and this is also reflected in a greater diplomatic presence in the Republic of Moldova.
We will continue to work to strengthen and increase the positive image of our country in the West, including by organizing the Days of the Republic of Moldova in the countries of the European Union and not only because, when more of our partners and friends get to know us, when more people will discover Moldova's products, our extraordinary wine, our extremely benevolent and hospitable people, we will be able to contribute to the growth of tourism in the Republic of Moldova, which is also a high priority for us.
The diplomatic service of the Republic of Moldova remains an essential component in meeting the expectations of promoting and achieving the national interest of the Republic of Moldova, which is to ensure peace, prosperity and economic development here at home.
Elena Nistor, IPN
