Moscow and Chisinau have an interest in promoting mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in a variety of areas, Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference on Wednesday after his talks with Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu.
"We underscored our mutual interest in promoting our partnership in a variety of areas in conformity with those statements that the new president of the Republic of Moldova, Ms. [Maia] Sandu, has repeatedly made. Our mutual commitment to pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation in the interests of our peoples was fully confirmed today," Lavrov said.
According to the Russian foreign minister, today Moldova again reaffirmed its policy of maintaining a balance in its cooperation with Eurasian integration bodies and the European Union.
"We also proceed from, and we confirmed, our respect for the non-aligned status, the status of a neutral state, which is enshrined in the Moldovan constitution. We welcomed the spirit of developing our relations based, as I have already said, on pragmatism and mutual consideration of interests," Lavrov added.
The Russian foreign minister recalled that the Wednesday meeting had taken place just two days before the 20th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and Moldova.
"We shared the opinion that this document retains its full meaningfulness and serves as a reliable legal basis for the promotion of bilateral cooperation in all directions," he said.
Before the news conference, the ministers signed a joint statement marking the 20th anniversary of the treaty.
Additionally, the ministers touched upon trade and economic cooperation.
"We stated with satisfaction that after last year’s slump there has been a quite steady recovery in trade. We noted the importance of the October 29 agreements in the gas area," the Russian foreign minister said. "We believe that the regular, 17th, meeting of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, which Nikolai (Nicu) Popescu chairs alongside Dmitry Patrushev, is meant to help enhance practical cooperation."
Lavrov and Popescu focused their attention on cooperation between the two countries’ foreign ministries. Before the news conference, they also signed a plan of inter-ministerial consultations for 2022-2023, which, in Lavrov’s words, "is quite meaningful and will help sustainably accelerate" bilateral contacts.
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