In Russia-West tug of war, Moldova sees EU as only option
Chisinau, Moldova
MOLDOVA'S decision to sign key trade and political agreements with the European Union (EU) has cost it dearly, as its giant trading partner Russia swiftly punished it through an embargo strangling its farm and wine industries.
Nevertheless, in the tug of war between the West and Russia, Moldova's foreign minister told AFP that there can only be one option for the former Soviet state - EU membership. "It is more important today than ever to offer a European prospect to Moldova, in the context of the tensed regional situation which poses a number of challenges," Natalia Gherman said.
Moldova, a nation of 3.5 million people that lies between Ukraine and Romania, is considered by some international organisations to be Europe's poorest country. More than two decades before the pro-Russian rebellion erupted in eastern Ukraine, Chisinau was already fighting a war with its own pro-Kremlin separatists in the Transdniestr region that borders Ukraine. Today, Russian troops are still stationed in the breakaway region.
Not surprising therefore that Chisinau has been watched in growing alarm as the Ukraine crisis unfolded last year, beginning with Russia's annexation of Crimea shortly after Kiev pushed on with its decision to lean West. Nato's top commander Philip Breedlove said in February that Moldova could well be the next target for Moscow after Ukraine.
Despite the geopolitical risks at stake, Ms Gherman believes that Moldovans are starting to come around to the advantages that a closer relationship with the EU could offer. Even those living in the breakaway region are beginning to be won over. Since Moldovans were granted visa-free travel to the EU last April, some 75,000 inhabitants of Transdniestr have asked for Moldova passports allowing them to travel around most of Europe, Ms Gherman revealed. Around 30 per cent of the region's exports now goes to the European single market, whereas previously, most of its output was sold to Russia, said the minister. For Moldova as a whole, the EU has become its biggest trading partner.
"European integration is the best road to the reunification of the country because the benefits will be felt by all . . . it would be worth more than any abstract strategy" against separatism, said Ms Gherman. She is looking to Brussels to signal a clear intention to keep its doors open to Chisinau at the Eastern Partnership summit, which meets in the Latvian capital Riga in two months' time.
The date for Moldova's actual candidacy is anyone's guess, while the media have speculated that it would be sometime in May. AFP
