Romanian foreign minister breaks the ice between Bucharest and Chisinau

Lazar Comanescu, the Romanian Foreign Affairs minister visited his Moldovan counterpart Andrei Stratan on Monday.

A series of meetings held by Comanescu with top Republic of Moldova officials was aimed at marking a period of ice-breaking in the bilateral relations, but all press statements were veiled in caution and only showed readiness to "fortify political, economic and social relations" between the two countries. Out of the meeting with Andrei Stratan, Lazar Comanescu also held talks with Moldovan Prime Minister Zinaida Grechany and President Vladimir Voronin.

"Romania is the only EU neighbour of the Republic of Moldova and I repeat, we have all the determination to strongly back the Republic of Moldova's process of approaching EU with faster steps," said the Romanian official.

As the media did not have access to official meetings, statements made by Comanescu and Stratan fail to provide a clear view of the progress in bilateral relations. Some considered the lack of access a sign that some issues such as border treaties are still taboo subjects.

The Moldovan Foreign minister said the agenda of talks spanned a large number of bilateral issues, but did not specify any in particular. He assured that talks for "solving existing problems" continue.

Meanwhile, Moldovan officials suggested that they were ready to re-start talks on the establishment of new Romanian consulates in the Republic of Moldova. Foreign minister Stratan said that there was a possibility that talks on opening consulates in Balti and Cahul may be held again.

Authorities in Bucharest have been insisting on the opening of two new consulates as the consular sections in Chisinau were unable to deal with the large number of applications from Moldovan citizens.

Comanescu's visit in Chisinau is the first high-level visit of a Romanian official in the Republic of Moldova after Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu's visit in July 2007.