Traian Basescu uses for the first time the expression “two peoples”

During his visit to Chisinau dated January 16, Romania’s President Traian Basescu pronounced for the first time the expression “two peoples”, while talking about the interests of Romania and Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. “I can assure you that both presidents of Moldova and Romania work to the benefit and for fulfilling the interest of the two peoples”, stated Basescu at the end of his speech, after the meeting held on Tuesday, January 16, with his Moldovan counterpart. Basescu mentioned that he will present his foreign policy speech on January 19 and he wanted to consult Voronin before launching it. He thanked the Moldovan President for the “very good discussion” the two heads of state had. In turn, President Voronin said that Basescu’s first visit to Chisinau during the electoral campaign for the elections of 2005 was interesting and valuable “because all of us benefited then”. “This is why I hope that the second visit will also allow us to gain even more because, having a EU member state as our neighbour, we now know for sure that we will receive assistance and help in all of the European institutions thanks to Romania. I hope we will reach even better results after this visit”, concluded Voronin. Until now, while speaking about Romania’s relations with Moldova, Traian Basescu used the expression “two states and a single nation”, a fact which repeatedly provoked harsh reactions from the Moldovan president. Half a year ago, while having a speech in front of the Moldovan winner students of the History Olympiad, Basescu mentioned amid others that “Romania has denounced the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, which broke the Romanian nation into two”. “We believe that the cultural connections between educational units and systems from Romania and Moldova will preserve for a long time the connection between the two countries, which have once been a single state. We are the single state and nation which is still separated. Germany reunited its nation; Romania is still separated into two states” he added. But, mentioned Basescu, the unification will be realised within the European Union. Shortly after that, Vladimir Voronin told a press conference that the union between Moldova and Romania will not occur even after the accession to the European Union, and “the architects of this scenarios in both Tiraspol and Bucharest, should admit the idea that such dreams are unrealisable”. During the same conference, Voronin stated that “in 1918 Romania occupied the territory which is called now the Republic of Moldova, and on June 28, 1940, it has been liberated from Romanian occupation”. During the press conference dated December 20, 2006, Voronin expressed dissatisfaction regarding the relations between Moldova and Romania. He specified they should be just normal, and Romania should not behave “like an elder brother”. "Neither we need a bigger brother nor privileged relations with Romania", Moldovan president stated. Voronin added that, although Bucharest insistently offers its help in the process of European integration, the relation between Moldova and EU can be a direct one, without the intermediary of Romania. "We will not present the major problems that would appear after January 1, 2007 to Romania, but to Mr Javier Solana and other high representatives of the European Union", specified Vladimir Voronin.