President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: I am pleased to meet you.
You have been in Russia on several occasions, but we have never had the chance to meet yet. Today we have the chance to talk with each other at this important event that is taking place here – the CIS summit. This summit is taking place at a difficult time in international and economic life. There are problems in the Russian economy, problems in the Moldovan economy. This makes this summit even more important, and you have no doubt sensed this in the intensive nature of the talks and discussions, which I think have been very interesting indeed.
I would also like to discuss our bilateral relations, because it would be wrong to visit Chisinau and not discuss the ties between our two countries. You have had an eventful political season and are now in the process of forming a new government. Of course, we are not indifferent to developments in the situation here. We want to build full-fledged friendly and sincere bilateral relations with Moldova, the kind of relations that are only natural, really, given the closeness of our peoples and their national interests.
That is what I wanted to begin by saying.
Leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova Marian Lupu: Thank you very much, Mr President.
First of all, I want to thank you for this meeting. It is indeed taking place at an important time for the Republic of Moldova. Our country faces a choice today: either end the period of political crisis that has gone on for too long now, or let it continue. This is all the more important given that Moldova has been quite hard hit by the global economic crisis.
I want to say a separate word of thanks for taking part in the Chisinau CIS summit this year, the year in which Moldova holds the presidency of the CIS.
I think that Moldova has demonstrated its commitment to the principles of good-neighbourly and mutually beneficial cooperation, taking into account our interest in continued participation in the CIS. I would say that in fact we even seek to intensify our participation, given that there is a whole range of issues of great importance for the future consolidation of our multilateral and bilateral political dialogue, greater economic and trade cooperation and stronger humanitarian and social ties. The Republic of Moldova has a whole number of reasons for seeking active participation in the CIS and working to develop it as a means for multilateral and bilateral cooperation based on the principles of predictability, stability and sincerity.
Today’s meeting was indeed very substantive and interesting. I think that this summit will give a new boost to progress in the work already begun and supported so far by the CIS member countries.
Dmitry Medvedev: I would like to take this opportunity to thank once more the entire Moldovan leadership for successfully organising this summit. Even though you had a very busy political situation to take care of you have organised everything very well.
Thank you for all the preparations and for facilitating the adoption of the important decisions approved today by the CIS member states. I think that this is indeed a guarantee for our future efforts.
I wish us all success in these endeavours.
Marian Lupu: Thank you very much.