Moldovan foreign affairs minister commends on latest events of current week

Chisinau, 16 December /MOLDPRES/ - The Moldovan diplomacy head, Nicu Popescu, during an intense week, was involved in a true marathon of diplomatic events, including visits, meetings, phone conversations and signing of agreements. All these events culminated with the much expected news: the decision of the member states on the launch of the negotiations on accession with Moldova, the Foreign Affairs and European Integration ministry’s (MAEIE) press service has reported.    

Thus, during this week, the Moldovan foreign affairs minister paid three visits abroad: to Brussels, Paris and again Brussels.

He also had two meetings with the director general of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Gert-Jan Koopman. On last Monday, the officials reviewed Moldova’s progress on the eve of the meeting of the European Council and on 15 December, the two officials met already to start the process of preparing the negotiations.  

Nicu Popescu also had 12 meetings with Romania’s Foreign Affairs Minister Luminita Odobescu, Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis, Foreign Affairs Minister of Estonia Margus Tsahkna, Latvia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, Foreign Affairs Minister of Slovakia Juraj Blanár, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of France Laurence Boone, a member of the German Bundestag Anna Lührmann, Foreign Affairs Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Ilia Darchiashvili and Foreign Affairs Minister of Azerbaijan  Jeyhun Bayramov, as well as five phone conversations with Luminita Odobescu, Péter Szijjártó,  Foreign Affairs Minister of Poland Radosław Sikorski, Minister for the EU and Constitution of Austria  Karoline Edtstadler and Ukraine’s Deputy PM for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna, ahead of the meeting of the European Council. All meetings and conversations had the goal to persuade the member states of the importance of backing the decision on the launch of the negotiations and of coordinating the joint efforts with the candidate states.     

On the same period, two agreements were signed for the benefit of Moldova: bilateral agreement signed with Latvia in the social security sector and a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), along with Deputy Prime Minister, Economic Development and Digitalization Minister Dumitru Alaiba.   

This week, full of events, anchored Moldova more firmly in the great European family, characterized by peace, stability and security. This was possible including due to the firm support on behalf of all European partners, especially of Romania and France, which have been with Moldova in all this process.