MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT STANDS FOR CREATING BIG ZONE OF FREE TRADE BETWEEN EURASIAN AND EUROPEAN UNIONS

Moldova President Igor Dodon has spoken out for creating a vast zone of free trade between the Eurasian Economic Union [of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, EAES] and the European Union.

Speaking at the EAES Summit held in Yerevan (Armenia) on Tuesday, President Dodon said: "We hope that sooner or later the two Unions will enter into negotiations on creating a big zone of free trade between these major international organizations. We support the idea of concluding such agreement, which would become a serious breakthrough in promoting the concept of creating a united Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. Moldova is a European state, which is the center of these processes geographically and geo-politically".

In his words, for Moldova the participation in new integration projects like the EAES is a matter of priority and a good possibility to diversify its economic ties and markets for exporting Moldovan goods and services. He named as interesting the experience of Moldova, which has been implementing for 5 years already the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement [DCFTA, the essential-most component of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement] simultaneously with other working agreements on free trade with CIS countries, Balkan countries and Turkey.

President Dodon said that presently Moldova has created favorable domestic political conditions for promoting real economic and structural reforms and for waging a weighted external policy. This has been achieved thanks to a change of power that happened in Moldova last June, he stressed.

"For the first time over the 28 years of the Republic of Moldova's recent history, political forces with diverging programs, ideologies and foreign political priorities have formed a governing majority and appointed a coalition Cabinet of Ministers. Those processes were backed by an unprecedented geopolitical consensus between our main external partners - the Russian Federation, the European Union and the United States. We shall be cooperating and developing mutually beneficial relations with all our partners both in the West and the East proceeding from our national interests, and we are not going to participate in geopolitical battles on somebody's side against somebody else", stated President Igor Dodon.

In his words, as an EAES observer country, Moldova is going to use all the possibilities for deepening cooperation with the Union, and will consider possibilities of participation in the Eurasian Development Bank.

"I would like to underline that a positive dynamic is remaining in the Republic of Moldova's trade with EAES countries. Last year, our trade turnover grew up 10%, and in January-July of the current year it went up by 6%. Moldova has goods to offer to the Eurasian Economic Union countries", stressed President Dodon.