The Chairman of the State Duma and the President of the Parliament of Moldova discussed the development of inter-parliamentary relations
President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Zinaida Greceanîi thanked Russia for the support provided to the country for overcoming the political crisis and expressed confidence in the resumption and development of bilateral relations at all levels
The meeting of Chairman the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich
The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast)
and President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Zinaida Greceanîi took place on June 27. On the same day, Zinaida Greceanîi addressed the members of the State Duma during the plenary meeting.
Opening the meeting, Viacheslav Volodin stressed that he was very pleased that Zinaida Greceanîi was present for the first time in the State Duma in the official status of the President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. He said that before ”the relationship was informal but very sincere.“
The Chairman of the State Duma reminded that his colleague chose the Russian Federation as the first country for her official visit.
“You have come to your friends in Russia, which sincerely does a lot to ensure peace and prosperity in the Republic of Moldova,” said Viacheslav Volodin.
The Chairman of the State Duma expressed confidence that this meeting would give a new impetus to the further development of inter-parliamentary interaction between the two countries.
“When we talk about parliaments, we should understand that these are relations between representatives of our nations, contacts are extremely important in order to better understand each other. First of all, this entails the formation of trust. And we hope that this trust will be growing, and the development of relations within the framework of the inter-parliamentary dimension will be an impetus for the development of relations between our countries in various fields,” he said.
Zinaida Greceanîi thanked Russia for the support it provided to the Republic of Moldova during the last political crisis. She reminded that as a result of the parliamentary elections in February 2019 in the Republic of Moldova ”a parliamentary majority, which saved the country from the usurpers who were recently in power in our country, was formed.“
“The agreement of the three big players, I’m not afraid to say this, of the three global players in the political arena, played a huge role: they are the Russian Federation, the United States, and the European Union when [they] united and recognized the new government,” said the President of the Parliament of Moldova.
Zinaida Greceanîi stressed that within the framework of the coalition created in the Moldovan Parliament there are different political and ideological views but “common sense prevailed in all: the country needs changes, this situation can't go on.”
Viacheslav Volodin agreed that the political crisis in Moldova and the lack of dialogue adversely affected the bilateral relations of the countries.
“Dialogue between countries exists at the most difficult time. And [in Moldova] the parliament closed itself with an iron curtain, did not conduct a dialogue with anyone, and this caused problems,” said the Chairman of the State Duma.
“We could not make decisions, address specific issues, and this affected the development of relations, including in matters related to foreign economic relations,” he added.
During the bilateral meeting Zinaida Greceanîi also expressed confidence that after the completion of the political crisis, the dialogue will be resumed at all levels.
She noted that ”the restoration of relations is very important as we have accumulated so many problems.“ The President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova stressed that relations should develop at all levels — at the level of parliaments and all the factions presented there, at the level of the newly established intergovernmental commission.
The presidents of the two countries, Vladimir Putin and Igor Dodon, do a lot to develop relations, Zinaida Greceanîi recalled.
In particular, Zinaida Greceanîi expressed confidence that together we will be able to find a solution to the energy problem of the Republic: “We have an acute energy issue, a gas supply issue. We understand that we are tied with the transit of gas with our neighbor, Ukraine.”
“Let's hope we find a solution to this issue because we simply don’t have any other source of gas supply,” said the President of the Parliament.
“We need to solve these issues, negotiate. We hope that we will find mutual understanding. It is important that the specialists will work in this direction, that some steps have already been taken,” she added.
“It’s not necessary to be friends with someone against someone, we need to be friends with everyone while protecting the interests of our people,” Zinaida Greceanîi stressed. Viacheslav Volodin fully supported his Moldovan counterpart in this position.
“Relations should be developed on the principles of bilateral cooperation, trust, dialogue and non-interference in the sovereign affairs of other states and, of course, the absence of double standards,” he said.
