New Moldovan PM calls for renewed trade, economic cooperation with Russia
CHISINAU. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Moldova's Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet has stressed the need to restore and develop the country's cooperation and relationship with the Russian Federation.
"We have an agreement on friendship, cooperation and strategic partnership with Russia. Unfortunately, the agreement, which was extended, is not working in practice. Our relations can hardly be called strategic at the moment. I think we have a deficit of communication. And we must tackle this deficit, sit down at the negotiating table and discuss the whole range of issues," Strelet told Publika, a news television channel, on Saturday.
"Moldova and Russia are two different countries with different opportunities and potentials," he said.
"Nevertheless, at the negotiating table we are equal partners. We need to discuss the possibilities of resuming our trade and economic cooperation, given the huge potential and existing realities," Strelet said.
"Moldova is taking part in the free trade area with the European Union, as well as the CIS countries," he said. "At the same time, Russia introduced an embargo against Moldova products despite the signed documents," the premier said.
"In my view, this also runs counter to certain rules of the World Trade Organization. As a rule, symmetrical measures are applied in such cases. We chose not to do so. But problems need to be discussed and we are ready for it," Strelet added.
At the same time, Moldova calls for Russian troops' withdrawal from its territory, he said.
"The presence of foreign troops contradicts our status of neutrality, the country's Constitution and Russia's international obligations. We are talking about it openly and are also ready to discuss all problems as we have sufficient arguments to make our case," Strelet said.
All this is "spelt out in the new government's operating program which was approved by the Moldovan parliament on Thursday," the prime minister recalled.
"The program also spells out that European integration is Moldova's national strategic priority. This is exactly what we will make our departure point in our further activities in a bid to preserve and develop our relations with all countries," the premier stressed.
Interfax already reported that under the new program the Moldovan government will strive to step up the political dialogue with Russia to normalize the bilateral relationship, including on trade, economic, energy and migration issues.
The previous government resigned on June 12. The new government was not formed until the Alliance for European Integration-3 (AEI-3) was created last week. It consists of 52 lower house members (deputies), with the quorum of 51 out of the total 101 deputies. The AEI-3 consists of the Liberal Democratic, Democratic and Liberal Parties.