Moldova Should Develop Strategic Partnership With Russia In All Spheres - Speaker

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2019) Moldova should develop a strategic partnership with Russia in all spheres of mutual interest, Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament Zinaida Greceanii said.

"Moldova needs a strategic partnership with Russia in all spheres. We must not view Russia only as the market for our goods. We have a centuries-long history of relations but we must restore the trade so that they [goods] could reach the Russian market," Greceanii told the NTV Moldova broadcaster on Friday.

The speaker stressed that she was speaking about the humanitarian, academic and medical cooperation as well as ties in other spheres of mutual interest.

Russia-Moldova relations deteriorated in 2015, when the Moldovan government ratified the Association Agreement with the European Union. As it provides for Moldova to open its market for the EU goods, Russia issued a temporary import moratorium on certain Moldovan goods, fearing that Chisinau might become a wormhole route for EU goods, banned under sanctions in Russia, to the Commonwealth of Independent States and Customs Union markets.