Russian, Moldovan presidents to hold talks in Moscow, Transdniestria among issues

MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Moldova’s President Igor Dodon has arrived in Moscow on an official visit at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their talks on January 17 will center on the prospects for bilateral trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation, as well as on pressing regional problem and particularly on peace settlement in the much-troubled Transdniestria (Dniester) region, the Kremlin press service said. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin handed an invitation to Dodon while attending inauguration of the latter man to the office of the president of the Republic of Moldova on December 23, 2016. On the same day, the politicians held a two-hour-long conversation where they discussed the current status of Russian-Moldovan relations, the prospects for stepping them up and the problem of peace settlement in the much-troubled Dniester region. Dodon told TASS somewhat later that Rogozin and he had also examined the agenda of his forthcoming meeting with Putin. In part, he said he planned to discuss two major issues, namely, "the return of Moldovan produce to the Russian market and the presence of Moldovan guest workers in Russia." On the latter issue, he was going to ask Putin to pardon the workers who had violated immigration rules in the past and were unable to return to Russia where, according to various reports, about 500,000 Moldovan citizens were working. Relations between the two countries deteriorated in June 2014 when Moldova signed an agreement on association and free trade with the EU and Russia imposed a ban on imports on some types of Moldovan produce out of the apprehension of possible re-exports of EU products via Moldova’s territory. In the wake of the ban, exports to Russia that had been the main purchaser of Moldovan produce from many long years dropped by 40 percent. The authorities in Chisinau also fell short of their promise promises make up for the loss of the Russian market by a buildup of exports to the EU, as the exports there also fell ten percent. Igor Dodon, the candidate of the Socialist Party, won election in November 2016. He said he would make his first foreign visit in the capacity of the head of state to Moscow where he would initiate the negotiations for drafting a treaty on strategic partnership, friendship, economic cooperation, and settlement of the conflict in Transdniestria, a breakaway region of Moldova also known as the self-proclaimed unrecognized Dniester Republic. Read more