Latvian foreign affairs minister says Latvia willing to back Moldova in all reform processes

Chisinau, 28 June /MOLDPRES/ - Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Nicu Popescu and Foreign Affairs Minister of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs today discussed ways of boosting the Moldovan-Latvian relations, cooperation in the investigation of the bank fraud in Moldova, removing the additional costs for roaming and organizing the next meeting of the inter-governmental commission in Riga, the Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry’s press service has reported.    

During discussions with his Latvian counterpart, Minister Popescu said that, at present, the government’s priority remained the re-establishment of the relations with the foreign partners. “The re-launch of the political dialogue with our foreign partners and unlocking of the foreign assistance, suspended last year, will represent the key elements for improving the situation in Moldova,” Nicu Popescu said.     

As for the bilateral dialogue, the Moldovan official stressed the importance of cooperation in the investigation of the one-billion-dollar theft. “A certain sum of this money was sent through the Latvian banking system and we have common interest with Latvia to find out where this money has gone and try to recover at least a part of it,” the Moldovan diplomacy head stressed.    

Referring to the resumption of contacts between the Constitutional Courts of the two countries, Minister Popescu noted that “earlier, in the case of the situation in Chisinau, Latvia had to be a bit reticent to this cooperation. Now, we have every interest in re-launching it when we have a functional Constitutional Court.”    

Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs emphasized his country’s willingness to further provide needed support and expertise for the process of reforms in Moldova. “Latvia and the European Union are ready to back Moldova in all reform processes; yet, at the same time, we would like to stress that we support concrete reforms and results and the principle “more for more” means that the more reforms and changes are, the more assistance will be available on behalf of EU.” 

Ministers Nicu Popescu and Edgars Rinkēvičs agreed on joint actions for boosting the Moldovan-Latvian cooperation, including in the commercial, economic and investment ties. The officials encouraged the contracts between the business environments, in order to stimulate the trade exchanges. In this respect, Minister Rinkēvičs reiterated the Latvian side’s wish to host the next meeting of the inter-governmental commission in Riga. “The holding of the meeting of the inter-governmental commission will allow us to consider concrete issues on the economic cooperation,” the Latvian diplomacy head added.  

The foreign affairs minister of Latvia invited Minister Nicu Popescu to pay a response visit to Riga.