Moldova – Meeting between Catherine Colonna and her Moldovan counterpart (June 13, 2023)

Today Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna hosted Nicu Popescu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova.

She congratulated Mr. Popescu on the particularly successful organization of the second European Political Community summit for heads of state and government, which was held in Chișinău on June 1, and underscored the concrete advances obtained by Moldova during the summit, with active support from France. She hailed the agreement with the EU on lowering roaming charges beginning on January 1, 2024, and the launch of a European civilian mission to enhance the resilience of the security sector in Moldova, which is helping to firmly anchor Moldova within the European family.

The two ministers discussed Moldova’s path to EU membership and the reforms undertaken by the Moldovan authorities to meet the nine recommendations issued by the European Commission in its opinion of June 17, 2022. Ms. Colonna reaffirmed France’s commitment to supporting Moldova in this process and our willingness to share our expertise to help with Moldovan capacity building.

She also reaffirmed France’s commitment to assisting Moldova as it deals with destabilization attempts in the context of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The two ministers also discussed the positive prospects for the French-Moldovan bilateral relationship and reaffirmed their shared desire to strengthen every aspect of that relationship.