Moldovan diplomat meets OSCE Chairman-in-Office

Chisinau, February 14 /MOLDPRES/- Moldovan diplomacy head Nicu Popescu met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia Bujar Osmani, who is on a working visit to Moldova in his capacity as OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the MAEIE press service has reported.

"On this occasion, we had a discussion about our region, our bilateral relations and common European aspirations - North Macedonia is already starting negotiations for accession to the European Union, while the Republic of Moldova has recently become a candidate state for accession to the European Union. Obviously, we also addressed this in order to exchange experience for the organization of the internal coordination process of the EU accession process", he said.

The main topic of discussion for the officials was regional security, with just 10 days to go to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's brutal, illegal and unjust military invasion of Ukraine. The officials noted that this war affected and affects dramatically the entire European continent and the Republic of Moldova, being the state closest to the front line, suffers an increased impact that is felt by all citizens in the country, in absolutely all areas: political, economic, energetic, social, humanitarian and obviously in security.

"We will continue to support the Ukrainian people. We will continue to very clearly and explicitly support our position of condemning Russian aggression and we will continue to promote the need to combine all international efforts for the return of the European continent to normality", said Popescu.

From the perspective of the Republic of Moldova, the OSCE has played an important role in the last 30 years for maintaining peace and stability in Moldova, for maintaining the Transnistrian settlement process in the peaceful basin, and the development and consolidation of democracy in our country. This mandate covers issues of democracy, freedom of the press, minority rights and other important areas for the consolidation and development of the country.

Due to the war, the Transnistrian settlement negotiations in the 5+2 format are currently not in a position to continue their discussions, but it is clear that we are doing everything necessary, in all possible ways, to maintain dialogue and stability on the territory of our country.

At the ministers' press conference held in Chisinau, the Moldovan diplomat reconfirmed once again the firm and clear attachment of the Republic of Moldova to our objectives, both externally and internally, namely the peaceful reintegration of our country, which we want to achieve through dialogue, negotiations, diplomacy, so that we can return to a state in which Moldova regains its sovereignty and territorial integrity throughout the territory of our country.

"We have clearly reiterated that the Russian Federation must withdraw its troops and ammunition that are illegally on our territory. This objective remains a central objective of our foreign policy, and the method of achieving it is exclusively peaceful, as we continue to advance this objective through diplomacy, negotiation and persuasive efforts.

We talked about the issue of non-respect of human rights in the Transnistrian region. The situation is alarming and here we rely heavily on the continued support and effort of the OSCE. In this context, I also expressed my support for the OSCE Mission to Moldova, especially in the efforts to monitor the situation in the security area, as well as facilitating the dialogue between Chisinau and Tiraspol. We agreed that the OSCE Mission must have unhindered access to the entire territory to the left of the Dniester - and here I want to reiterate the fact that the mission played a very important role in consolidating peace and stability in our country", he said.

Photo: MAEIE