UPDATE - Moldovan President Offers To Sign Declaration On Strategic Partnership With Russia

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2018) Moldovan President Igor Dodon has offered to sign a declaration on strategic partnership with Russia in the near future.

"I consider it necessary to sign a joint declaration on strategic partnership in the near future and create a joint committee at a high political level that will be engaged in a comprehensive discussion of strategic issues," Dodon said at a plenary session in the Russian State Duma.

Russia has been and will be a strategic partner of Moldova, Dodon stressed.

The president expressed confidence that after the parliamentary elections in the country, strengthening of relations with Russia will remain a priority for the country's authorities.

"Issues related to development of bilateral interstate relations will continue to be on the agenda of the dialogue between the presidents of Moldova and Russia. And I am convinced that in the near future, after the upcoming parliamentary elections in Moldova, the strengthening of Moldovan-Russian relations will become one of the most important priorities at the level of parliaments and governments of the two countries," Dodon noted.

The Moldovan parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for November. However, in July, lawmakers voted to postpone them until February 24, 2019. The elections will be for the first time held in compliance with a new procedure according to which half of the parliament members will be elected under party lists, while the second half will be elected from single-member Constituencies.

Moldova, a parliamentary republic, has long been experiencing a stand-off between the president and the government over the country's foreign policy. Dodon, who took office as president of Moldova on December 23, 2016, insists on rapprochement with Russia, while the parliamentary majority and the government stick to a pro-Western course in foreign policy.