Foreign Affairs on June 16–30, 2009

Bilateral cooperation

Republic of Moldova — Romania

The Moldovan-Romanian diplomatic relations are frozen so far, while the news conference on June 24, 2009 at which the incumbent president of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, brought new accusations against Romania does not forecast any warming of these ties in the near future. Vladimir Voronin said that the Prosecutor-General’s Office holds evidence on Romania’s participation in the April 7, 2009 unrest. As well, he said that the visa requirements for Romanian citizens will be cancelled “immediately after the European Union will simplify the visa requirements for Moldovan citizens”^[1] and he will insist on this condition during his presidency. Later, in an interview with the radio station Voice of AmericaRU, Vladimir Voronin has reiterated the accusations against Romania that the latter does not recognize Moldova’s statehood, stressing that Moldova does not ask Romania to sign a special border treaty, but one similar to those signed by Bucharest with other countries.

In his turn, Romania’s president told on June 25, 2009 a group of children from Transnistrian region at a Romanian summer camp that despite the hostile messages of Moldovan authorities, Romania recognizes the statehood of the Republic of MoldovaRO, supports its territorial integrity and wishes Moldova to become an EU member.

Republic of Moldova — Russia

The Moldovan-Russian relations keep developing. The major event was the visit of the incumbent president of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, to Moscow and the meeting with Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. While on visit, Vladimir Voronin thanked the Russian Federation for its political support to Moldova after the post-electoral developments, inclusively in front of the European Union, while Russian officials reiterated their support for the actions taken by Moldovan authorities after elections. Concomitantly with the moral support, the Russian Federation was ready to provide a financial support to Moldova via a 500-million-dollar grant. At the same time, Vladimir Voronin was quoted as saying that Russia will also provide a 20-million-dollar grant for repairing of the Parliament building.

The results of the meeting between Moldovan Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii and the first deputy prime minister of Russia, Igor Shuvalov, also indicates better Moldovan-Russian relations, as the two officials settled issues relating to liberalization of supplies of Moldovan agro-food products and wines to Russia.

Note by ADEPT: Opposition parties raised concern with the unclear contracting conditions for the Russian credit and asked Vladimir Voronin to reveal the crediting conditions and to orient the credit (if signing of the agreement with Russia accordingly to legal norms) to investments in infrastructure. The crediting conditions were not revealed so far, while negotiations between Moldovan and Russian Governments are underway. According to knowledgeable Russian sources (www.ng.ru), this credit could cover the Transnistrian debt for Russian gas.

Republic of Moldova — USA

In the period concerned, incumbent President Vladimir Voronin had a meeting with the USA ambassador to Moldova, Asif J. Chaudhry, and discussed progresses in implementing the MCC Preliminary Country Program and the perspective of signing the Compact agreement of the USA Millennium Challenge Corporation (once signed, this agreement will give green light to about 500 million dollars for road building, development of energy sector, transition to modern agriculture and development of primary health assistance in rural areas). The sides also tackled the forthcoming early elections, with the USA ambassador stressing the importance of free and fair elections and respect for the media freedom, which are necessary to strengthen the Moldovan democracy and improve Moldova’s external image.

Note by ADEPT: The same day, Deputy Prime Minister Iurie Rosca told a sitting of the national committee on combating trafficking in human beings that the Unites States denigrates Moldova by releasing wrong accounts on trafficking in persons and the Moldovan authorities will ask explanations from the US regarding these exaggerated data.

Multilateral cooperation

Republic of Moldova — Council of Europe

ECHR decisions

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has passed decisions on the cases Gurgurov vs. Moldova and Buzilov vs. Moldova in the period concerned. In both cases it established the violation of Article 3 ECHR (prohibition of torture) after the ill-treatment of the applicants by police officers and the lack of an adequate investigation in this respect, and indicated the violation of the right to an effective appeal in the case of Gurgurov vs. Moldova. In both cases, Moldova will pay 75,000 Euros in non-pecuniary damages and 500 Euros in costs and expenses. (Source: www.echr.coe.int, www.lhr.md)

Results of the visit of PACE corpporteurs

On June 22, the corapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Josette Durrieu and Egidijus Vareikis, reported the results of their June 10, 2009 fact-collection visit to Moldova. According to the communication, the corapporteurs welcomed the amendments to the Electoral Code from June 16, though they do not respond to all concerns raised by PACE and Council of Europe (CoE), and invited the authorities to enact them exactly. As well, they recommended the resolution of all shortcomings related to electoral lists and voting by nationals from other countries. The corapporteurs insisted that the authorities should ensure all necessary conditions for the electoral campaign in line with European standards, inclusively by ensuring the access to the media, and recommended the PACE Bureau to deploy a large observance mission to the early parliamentary elections on July 29, 2009.

As regards the April 7–8, 2009 events, the corapporteurs asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office to start up investigations on the signaled violence and torture and report the findings to the CoE Monitoring Committee. The Monitoring Committee will keep watching the fulfillment of the April 29, 2009 PACE Resolution 1666.

Republic of Moldova — CIS

Chisinau hosted on June 19 the 42^nd Meeting of the CIS Economic Council, which brought together representatives of Moldova and delegates from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine. It discussed issues relating to cooperation of CIS member states in developing international transport corridors, energy systems, anticrisis actions.

↑ www.infotag.md, 24.06.2009

e-democracy.md