MOLDO-RUSSIAN GOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION TO START WORKING SOON - KOZAK

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, President Putin's Special Representative for the development of trade and economic relations with the Republic of Moldova, stated during his meeting with Moldovan President Igor Dodon in Moscow today that the Moldova-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation will resume its activities soon.

"The Commission has not worked since November 2016 i.e. for nearly 2 years. We have never had such a long pause in our bilateral relations over all the 27 years of independence. So, the Commission needs to be brought back to regular work, and I have said this to the Government of Moldova, too. I do hope that in the nearest future we will resume and continue our negotiations on the level of foreign ministries. I guess this will happen in October-November, and after that, or in parallel, the Inter-Governmental Commission will start working as well", said Dmitry Kozak.

The Deputy Premier underscored that over the last 1.5 years, the relationship between the two countries has been limited to occasional contacts between their Presidents, "but Russia stands ready for a full-fledged restoration of economic relations with Moldova on mutually beneficial terms".

President Dodon added that "it is indeed necessary to be friends with neighbors. But this should not be a friendship against somebody else".

"Moldova will be waging precisely such policy in the economic as well as in political plane. In economic terms, we are certainly interested in acquiring new markets. But without traditional ones - the markets of the CIS, the Eurasian Economic Union, of the Russian Federation - our producers will simply not survive", said Dodon.

He emphasized that Russia is already demonstrating openness, so now its Moldova's turn to do the same, "namely we must resume an active work at the level of governments".

Last June, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Dmitry Kozak as his Special Representative for the development of trade and economic relations with the Republic of Moldova. In this quality, Kozak is also responsible for the Transnistrian conflict settlement process. The post of the Russian President's Special Representative on Transnistria was abolished by Putin. Before that, these two positions were entrusted to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. However, he was declared as a persona non grata in Moldova in July 2017.