Speech for the Reception on the occasion of the Independence Day
Excellencies, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to greet you at the reception dedicated to the 33rd anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Moldova. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you all for accepting the invitation to share this festive moment with us.
Today, on one hand, we can say that we have two reasons for celebration. Since 1991, the Republic of Moldova marks its Independence Day on August 27th, while on August 31st, we honour the return of the Romanian language on our land. Additionally, yesterday, on September 3rd, we celebrated the Day of the National Army. On the other hand, though, we have a long list of accomplishments in the Moldovan-Ukrainian relationship that are worth to be praised. I will refer only to the most important ones, but before speaking about our bilateral achievements, I would like to highlight the importance that the current year has for the Republic of Moldova.
As you may know, on October 20th, the people of our country will have the opportunity to exercise their democratic rights by voting at the Presidential Elections. Moreover, we, the citizens of Moldova will be asked to decide on the European Path of the country as well. Hereby, I would like to express my confidence that despite of the complicated regional situation and based on the efforts of the Republic of Moldova’s government, the people of our country will choose the path of justice, fairness and democracy, the path of the European Union Integration. Furthermore, I am sure that the citizens of Ukraine want the same for their country, and I am confident that these desires will strengthen the bond between our states even more.
It would be fair to say that the level of our bilateral affairs is the highest it has ever been. Within the last 2 years Ukraine hosted the visit of the President of the Republic of Moldova 3 times, the visit of the Prime-minister twice and a countless number of visits at ministerial level. These meetings have resulted in several important agreements. Our cooperation also extended to various multilateral platforms supporting Ukraine, including the Peace Formula, Crimea Platform, Bucha Summit, the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children and others. Nevertheless, we cannot overlook the mutual visits of the Legislative Presidents, and the overall outstanding cooperation between the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Therefore, we are grateful for the efforts of the Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Groups.
At the same time, it is my pleasure to highlight the work of our colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. We are grateful for your openness and dedication. We appreciate all the work you have already done and are confident in the continuity of our fruitful cooperation. In this context, I cannot overlook the productive trilateral meetings between the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Romania, that already took place at Odesa, Bucharest and Chisinau. We are happy with everything we have already achieved and are confident that way more is yet to come.
Our confidence is not only rooted in our own potential but also in the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people, who are bravely defending their country and inspire us every day. It is a heroic fight, a truly historical one. Therefore, we would suggest to hold a moment of silence in the honour of the fallen ones. Thank you. It is obvious that you are defending not only the integrity of Ukraine, not only your freedom, but the freedom and ideals of the entire European continent. We want to assure you once again of the full support of the Republic of Moldova for your Independence, Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity. From the very first day of this unjustified war, we were committed in helping Ukraine and its people. Moldova has provided shelter to over a hundred thousand Ukrainians, and we have opened our borders to over a million ones who have transited through our country. We opened all the available routes with the hope that one day, all those solidarity lines through which the Ukrainian grain was exported, will serve as lines through which the goods for the restauration of the country will return to Ukraine.
It will happen, because both Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova strongly committed to be part of the European Union family. We want to live in a just and a lawful world and our wish was recognized by the EU member states. Of course, the acceptance of the start of the accession negotiations represents a unique opportunity for each of our countries particularly, yet it will be another wonderful occasion to develop the bilateral cooperation, and just as mentioned at the beginning of my speech, we are confident that it will bring us even closer.
Today’s speech would have been incomplete without me mentioning the cooperation between our cultural institutions, libraries, universities, as well as the cooperation between the regions of our countries. We want to come to Europe united, with our homework done, with Moldovan-Ukrainian cooperation and friendship based on mutual respect of vital interests, on good mutual knowledge. In this context, I would like to express our gratitude towards the Ukrainian authorities that restored a historical truth by taking the necessary measures for returning to the only correct name of the Romanian language.
As I mentioned at the beginning, we celebrate the Romanian language day as well, therefore, I extend my honest congratulations to all the Romanian speakers. Felicitari!
This evening’s official reunion is meant to celebrate our achievements, that would have been impossible without the efforts of the teams of the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova and the General Consulate in Odessa, that work under the same pressure that is exerted over the entire country. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning the efforts of the Honorary Consulates of the Republic of Moldova. It is hard to overestimate their role in assisting the diplomatic mission in its efforts of promoting the bilateral cooperation between our countries. Additionally, thanks to them, we will taste Moldovan wines and dishes prepared with dedication by the wonderful team of the Premier Palace Hotel. Therefore, I would like to express our gratitude towards the Honorary Consuls of the Republic of Moldova at Vinnytsia, Lvov, Boryspil, Khmelnitsky, Zaporozhe, Sumy and the one that is currently in the appointment process at Dnipro.