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Barroso says Moldova agreement no threat to Russia

15 May 2014, 17:34 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday that a planned EU association agreement with former Soviet satellite Moldova is not a threat to Russia.

"The agreement... is for openness, for trade, for democracy, for rule of law -- our agreements are not directed against Russia," Barroso said after meeting Moldova Prime Minister Iurie Leanca.

Earlier this month, the European Union unlocked 30 million euros ($41 million) to help bolster ties with Moldova, as part of a political and trade association agreement which it will sign with the EU on June 27 against the backdrop of a deepening EU-Russia standoff in Ukraine.

Leanca said Moldova was "going in the direction of the EU" and that it was his country's sovereign right to do so.

But in a bid to reassure Moscow, Leanca said Moldova's European integration "should not preclude us from enhancing, improving, enriching our relationship with the Russian Federation".

The deal with the EU comes as tension continues in Moldova's Russian-speaking breakaway region of Transdniestr, a strip of land wedged between the Dniestr river and the border with Ukraine.

The region declared independence from Moldova in 1990, and while it is not recognised by any state it was visited, earlier this month, by deputy Russian PM Dmitry Rogozin.

The EU is set to sign a separate association agreement with the former Soviet republic of Georgia in coming months. Both Moldova and Georgia have sizeable Russian-speaking minorities.

The EU had hoped to draw six former Soviet states into its Eastern Partnership programme but Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus decided to change tack when Moscow reminded them of what they might lose in terms of their Russian ties.

Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych ditched a similar association agreement in November under Russian pressure, triggering large protests which led to his ouster.


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