Press
MOLDOVA SHALL SIGN BASIC POLITICAL TREATY WITH ROMANIA AND SHALL REMAIN SOVEREIGN – FILAT
The Republic of Moldova shall remain a sovereign and independent state, and a Basic Political Treaty with Romania “must and shall be signed”, Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat stated in his interview with influential Kommersant newspaper of Moscow published today.
Filat does not regard the unsuccessful September 5 referendum as a failure of the governing Alliance for European Integration. He said he regards the referendum outcome as “a reality that has to be taken as it is, and to work on”.
He preferred to not elaborate on whether the incumbent governing alliance will run for parliament “as one mighty column or each party all by itself”, and only said, “Let’s not run ahead of events. Time will come, and my party [Liberal Democratic] will announce its decision officially”.
The Premier said he does not regard Moscow’s actions towards imports of Moldovan wine and fruit as a punishment for the questionable actions and statements made by Moldova’s Acting President Mihai Ghimpu, “but nevertheless such treatment is not quite correct”.
“I guess this is a mistake because such reaction delivers a blow not on the personalities whom Moscow regards as a mark. This is a blow on people who work day and night, on economic operators that have invested heavily in their businesses. The thing is, many of the operators are Russian companies. This is a policy of isolation, not of rapprochement”, said the Moldovan Prime Minister.
In his belief, relationship between the two countries will be settled and brought to their previous normal shape after the republic has passed through a hard election period, though Filat hopes that even in the months before the elections the countries will manage to put aside emotions and focus on real, concrete matters and on what must be a real link between them.
Filat said he has sent to his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin a letter containing these and other ideas of his, but Putin has not yet replied.
“I realize the recent time was very complicated for the Russian Prime Minister – fires, drought etc. But I still hope an answer will come, for this concerns both countries. May be I show too emotional a reaction to all things around, but it is because I realize that our relations, which were developing in not the best times, need to be administered very carefully to let them have a good future”, said Filat.
Touching on his recent meeting with Tiraspol leader Igor Smirnov, Filat offered an opinion that Smirnov is a person one can talk to, and can reach accords with.
He said, “There exists no alternative to country reintegration, and Mr. Smirnov seems to realize this, too. The thing is, it is necessary to create a proper atmosphere for this. This is what we should begin with. I have always said and will repeat now: country reintegration will be advancing at a pace equal to the speed of growth of citizenry’s welfare on the western Dniester bank [i.e. in mainland Moldova]. This can be achieved only with concrete actions, not declarations”.
Premier Filat named as a very important achievement that the Transnistria problem tackling has been raised to the level of Germany and Russia.
He stressed, “Germany is a country, whose level of relations with Russia permits taking decisions and ensure their implementation. I guess this is very good for us all that Germany has undertaken this initiative [on handling the Transnistria problem by joint effort]”.
