Presidency of the Republic of Moldova
Dear President Macron,
I'm glad to see you again, a few days after your re-inauguration as President of the French Republic. Congratulations and good luck for your second mandate.
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the topics on our bilateral agenda, even if our discussion takes place in a difficult and tragic context, marked by war.
We will discuss with the President the challenges and consequences of the war in Ukraine on the Republic of Moldova, the priorities of the Moldovan-French bilateral agenda and the European aspirations of our country.
Moldova has strongly condemned Russia's war against Ukraine. We called for peace to be restored and Moldovans opened their homes and hearts to the Ukrainian refugees.
More than 450,000 refugees have transited Moldova since 24 February. Nearly 90,000 remain in my country - and half of them are children.
We are grateful for the aid of over 300 thousand euros offered for the management of the refugee flow, but also for the decision to relocate 2500 refugees.
We appreciate France's role in organizing, together with Germany and Romania, the Moldova Support Platform, aimed to help us overcome the consequences of the war, the inflation and the energy crisis that my country is facing.
We will also discuss Moldova's European agenda. The European Union is, first of all, a peace project for us, which is why, on 3 March, we signed the application for EU membership.
We want to join the European Union and we will continue our approach with determination and firmness. It is in the light of our European aspirations that I welcome President Macron's initiative to create the European Political Community, which would support and accelerate our EU accession process.
Moldova is a European country with a European history - and it will undoubtedly have a European future.
We see our future in the European Union as a strategic option that offers Moldova the chance to remain part of the free world.
Today we will discuss France's support for this.
We understand that European integration will be a long and complex process that will take a lot of effort and work. We are not looking for shortcuts on this path. We are ready to work and we want to be evaluated on merit.
We will address the dynamic bilateral dialogue between our countries. We have good cooperation in domains like justice and the fight against corruption.
I thank the French authorities in particular for their expertise and support in identifying and confiscating stolen assets from the Republic of Moldova.
We will also discuss trade, cooperation in economic, cultural and educational fields and prospects for cooperation in sectors such as energy efficiency, environment, agriculture and tourism.
The opening of the French Development Agency office in Chisinau will speed up the negotiation of budget support loans and the financing of important projects in the fields of energy, irrigation, reforestation and the modernization of water and sewage systems.
We will also discuss French support for the rehabilitation and modernization of the railway on the Chisinau-Ungheni section, which will open up the prospect of connection to the European TNT rail network.
We have a dynamic bilateral agenda, which we want to fully exploit, including with the participation of the new French government.
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