Radio România Internațional

Tag: Republic

  • Bucharest-Chisinau relations in an election year

    Bucharest-Chisinau relations in an election year

    Running for a second term in office this year, the Socialist pro-Russian president Igor Dodon resorts to statements that are often conflicting. On Tuesday, in a meeting with the Moldovan ambassadors abroad, he said the enforcement of the Association Agreement with the EU, signed in 2014 by the previous, pro-Western government, remains one of the foreign policy priorities for the Republic of Moldova.



    In addition to what he called “strengthening relations with the EU, the incumbent Moldovan president also insisted on the importance of bilateral relations with Moscow and Bucharest. He mentioned that in April the country will celebrate 10 years since signing a strategic cooperation and partnership with Romania, and added that at present there are no delicate issues or disagreements with Bucharest.



    A lot more cautious, the Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu told his EU counterparts that Moldovas efforts to implement the obligations undertaken with respect to the European Union must be closely and strictly monitored. Experts in Chisinau, quoted by Radio Romania correspondents, argue that the Socialist government only goes through the motions of implementing the accession deal with Brussels, and that its statements are not followed by the required reforms.



    Political analyst Ion Tabarta says that the supposedly balanced foreign policy that Chisinau claims to be embracing is in fact an attempt at redirecting it towards Moscow and at accommodating Russias interests. The media mention a recent statement by Moldovas foreign minister, Aureliu Ciocoi, regarding the allegedly peace-making role of the Russian Army in the armed conflict of 1992, when Chisinau lost authority over the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniester. At the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999, Russia pledged to pull out its troops and military equipment from the Moldovan territory, but so far it has barely taken any steps to keep its commitments.



    Last month, the Romanian Academy felt bound to respond to the downpour of political statements in Chisinau. The highest scientific body in Bucharest called on the authorities of Moldova to preserve the appropriate and traditional concepts of “Romanian language and “the history of Romanians in their official documents. The Academy voiced concern with the attempts by Chisinau officials to reintroduce the phrase “Moldovan language, concocted by the Soviet propaganda, and argues that there is no such thing as a Moldovan language, but rather a Romanian language with several varieties, including the Moldovan one.



    The concepts of “Moldovan language and “Moldovan nation were introduced by Stalins Moscow to justify Russias annexing the eastern Romanian territories on which the current Republic of Moldova was formed. According to the latest opinion poll, 34% of the Republics citizens favour a re-union with Romania.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Romania supports reforms in Moldova

    Romania supports reforms in Moldova

    Still dramatically divided between those fostering Soviet nostalgias, on the one hand, and supporters of Western values, on the other hand, the Moldovan society was bound to generate conflicting political forces. The latest elections have led to a difficult cohabitation of a pro-Russian, Socialist president, Igor Dodon, and a heterogeneous coalition Cabinet supporting European integration, headed by the Democrat Pavel Filip. Since taking office, Dodon has travelled to Russia 3 times in less than half a year. Fillip on the other hand feels a lot more comfortable in Bucharest, Brussels and Strasbourg.



    The 2014 signature of the association and free-trade agreements between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union has irritated Moscow, which banned imports from Chisinau. In turn, the countrys Western partners have difficulties tolerating the corruption in Moldova, culminating with the surreal vanishing of one billion US dollars, accounting for 15% of the countrys GDP, from the Moldovan banking system.



    For fear that their money would be swallowed into a corruption black hole, the IMF, EU and World Bank have temporarily suspended credit lines for Chisinau. At that time, Romania was the only one willing to give its neighbouring country a 150 million euro loan, with a 4 and a half years maturity and a preferential 1.45% interest rate.



    Attending the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Monday, the PM of the Republic of Moldova acknowledged, in a statement for Radio Romanias correspondent in Strasbourg, the importance of Bucharests support:



    Pavel Filip: “Romanias support is very important to us and I would like to express my gratitude to our friends in Bucharest. We can see this support not only here, at the Council of Europe, but also at home, on a daily basis. When the Republic of Moldova went through its most difficult times, namely last year when our financing sources were all cut out, Romania was the one that gave us a first loan, which was necessary if we were to return to a normal course of events in Chisinau. Not to mention a lot of other forms of help that Romania gives to the Republic of Moldova, such as the refurbishing and building of hundreds of kindergartens, or the provision of school buses. But I think the most important thing for us is the constant support that Romania offers for our efforts to join the EU.



    This support is in fact a constant element of Bucharests foreign policy. Created on a part of Romanias eastern territory annexed by Stalins Moscow in 1940, the Republic of Moldova proclaimed its independence on august 27, 1991, and Romania was the first country in the world to recognise the new state. And ever since, regardless of the political affiliation of its governments, Romania has been the most steady supporter and advocate of the independence, integrity and European integration of the Republic of Moldova.