 To the United States Institute of Peace, it is our great honor to host this very distinguished Moloven delegation. An opportunity for us here in Washington to be able to speak informally with this delegation. It's a great opportunity for us at the Institute of Peace to host this delegation. The Institute of Peace is, some of you are, some of the people in this front row here, the first time excluding Ambassador Smith, have been here, are here for the first time. So let me just remind the Institute of Peace was put together, founded by Congress in 1984. And we were designed to address conflict and indeed violent conflict. And so we do this in various places around the world. We have offices in Baghdad. We have offices in Tunis. We have offices in Kabul, in Islamabad. So around the world we do work on the African continent. So it's a range of things where we help others solve conflict. We try to solve some of ourselves, but the conflict is across the world. So we're working around the world and gives us the opportunity in Washington to convene and to bring people together to have conversations about conflict. So Moldova, not in a conflict, happily. I spent some time in a neighboring country of Moldova and Ukraine, which is in a conflict. And so the Institute of Peace is doing some work in Ukraine on that conflict. And I can see some similarities and some differences between these. One is, we've already said that Ukraine is in an active war, Ukraine is fighting a war. And they're dealing with big problems internally, corruption as well. Moldova is not fighting a war. And one of the things that I hope we're able to talk about today is Moldova's approach to the Russian troops that are on their sovereign soil. So this is an opportunity to talk about this. Moldova is complicated. Moldova is very complicated. And it's a great opportunity to have the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister and the Foreign Minister and the Ministry of Economy to help explain this to us. So I'm very much looking forward to that. Again, we have the Prime Minister, Pavel Philip. We have the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Tudor Ilyam Avonsky. Close. Close, almost. You can help me with this. The Minister of Defense, Yugin Sturza. And the Minister of Economy and Infrastructure, Teril Gaborici. Close. All right. And we have a brand new Moldovan Ambassador to the United States, who is Cristiana Balan. So welcome to you all. We also have a former U.S. Ambassador to Moldova, Ambassador Smith. We have another ambassador around here. I saw Bill Courtney, who is all the way in the back, who's been ambassador to a bunch of different places. So it's great to have that kind of people here today to help us in this conversation. So the format will be that the Prime Minister will have some opening remarks. He will then sit down on the stage. His ministers will come join him. I will have a couple of questions to start us off. The main part of this conversation will be yours. So we look forward to your conversations, your questions, your comments about Moldova, about anything that the Prime Minister or the others have said. So without anything further, let me invite the Moldovan Prime Minister to the stage and we will begin. Prime Minister. Can you confirm if you hear the translation on Channel 1? A voice. Not a translation yet. Can you hear me? Esteemed Ambassador, ladies and gentlemen, I have the privilege and happy opportunity to express on behalf of the government of the Republic of Moldova and on my behalf sincere gratitude to the Institute of Peace for the good organization and for housing this very important event, which is part of the series of actions aimed at strengthening the democracy and sustainable development of the Republic of Moldova. Our relationship with the United States are part of the priority objectives of the foreign affairs policy of our country. We have a strategic dialogue with the United States and of course the Republic of Moldova relies on further support of USA. As I've said, USA is a trustworthy and a very valuable partner for the Republic of Moldova and we would like to further develop the relationship between our two countries, which are based on sharing democratic values, mutually advantage cooperation in security and in trade and economic areas. The government that I represent implemented a series of measures in order to mitigate the consequences of the economic and financial crisis to enhance the democracy and to ensure a sustainable development of our country. In 2016, in early 2016, we launched a sustained effort to ensure effective implementation of reforms in key areas in order to modernize and democratize our country according to the best practices in the West. 2015 was a crisis year for the Republic of Moldova, a crisis which started from the actions which destabilized the banking system, which generated an economic crisis and which generated a political crisis. That is why the government that I represent had to invest efforts in order to first stabilize the political situation which allowed us to stabilize the economy and of course the most important thing to stabilize the banking system. That is why the Republic of Moldova is aware also of the challenges that it has to cope with and fully assumes the commitments to improve its performances in good governance, to promote economic freedom, to favor investments in health and education. Recently, during government meeting, we approved the mid-term priorities and I will tell you which are the three main priorities that will be implemented in the following years. It is about development of infrastructure, education and number three, of course, a very important pillar, ensuring a rule of law. We would like to improve the strategic dialogue between the United States and the Republic of Moldova and to conduct as soon as possible the meetings of its working groups. I speak about the working group on strengthening the rule of law, working group on security and defense and working group on energy security. At the same time, we are grateful for the contribution of USA in promoting the regulation of the Transnistrian conflict, who played a very important role in having progress in the five plus two negotiation format. We reaffirmed the commitment of the government to identify a political solution already for the Transnistrian conflict by respecting the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Moldova. Last year, after a huge effort and after many years of lack of any progress on the Transnistrian issue, we managed, as usually, as we have set as goals, we wanted to have progress in areas that will increase the level of comfort of people living there. We have signed a number of protocol decisions which allowed people who have agricultural lands in the security area to have access to their lands, because previously Transnistria would take these lands without asking for any permission and they used these lands for themselves. We also found a solution for the good operation of schools from Transnistria teaching in Romanian language. We also managed to open the circulation on a bridge that connects two banks of the Nistra River. We also signed a protocol decision which stipulates a solution that ensures interconnection in electronic communication and recently an important decision but a very tough decision related to the providing access to cars with license plates from Transnistria for them to be able to circulate in the international traffic. As an important objective on the bilateral agenda between Moldova and USA is to strengthen the cooperation in promoting regional stability and global stability. We believe that the Republic of Moldova should not serve as a polygon for geopolitical confrontations. We would like to become a platform of cooperation that could contribute to ensuring regional security. As I've said in this area, the situation is tense in terms of security. That is why we do need further support in order to ensure peace in this region. Of course, it is a pity and we regret the security crisis in our neighboring country which is very much felt in the Republic of Moldova by actions of Russian interferences. In spite of this complex context, the European path of our country is irreversible. This was declared as number one objective of the government that I have the honor to lead or signing the association agreement with DCFTA as a component was already done. We plead for a pragmatic approach in our relationship with the Russian Federation based on mutual respect and based on our historic relations. We would like to build a unified and solidary society where each citizen has the possibility to participate directly in achieving the objectives assumed by the government. National priority objectives of the government target at integrating the Republic of Moldova in the European area, reintegration of the country by identifying a political solution for these conflicts that we have in Transnistria, ensuring a rule of law and building democracy and of course ensuring economic growth in the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, the Republic of Moldova is open to cooperate with USA in order to achieve the objectives established as part of the strategical dialogue. My country commits to invest efforts as a safe and available partner in order to increase investments in the private sector. And as a conclusion, I would like to use this opportunity and to express one more time our gratitude, the gratitude to the US authorities for continuous support and for significant assistance provided to the Republic of Moldova aimed at strengthening democracy and ensuring a functional market economy. At the same time, I want to ensure you that we will continue to invest efforts in order to build the rule of law and develop a sustainable economy which is very much necessary for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Thank you very much. And I can invite the other ministers to come join us. So, Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much for the remarks. I don't know if you need the interpretation or not, but let me know if there's any problem. So, we've heard a good description of the policies of this government. And this government has, and the Prime Minister has laid out a very western-oriented policy, set of policies, both on the economic side and on the security side. And this is part of what I was talking about when I said Moldova is complicated. Because on the one hand, there is the domestic set of issues. And the domestic set of issues have to do as in all countries with reform. I mean, I include the United States. I mean, we have our reforms that we need to do. You mentioned your neighbor, Ukraine, has its set of issues to reform. Moldova has a particular focus on this issue right now, on election reform and judicial reform. Because of the mayor election in Kizzenau, that was contested and went to two courts and was overturned, causing great concern on the part of many Moldova. So, that's kind of the domestic side, don't you think? There's also the external politics. And Prime Minister, you referred to that as well. The external politics have to do with the Russians and the West and the Russians of the United States and the EU. I want to argue, though, that they are related, that they are intertwined, and you can't do one without. Some people will argue that because of the international aspect and the geopolitical aspect of Moldova's politics, that the West has no choice but to support Moldova. Blind to anything else, that geopolitical imperative is what we should follow. There are others, you know these, who say unless there is full reform, unless there is no corruption, and I'm overstating this a little bit, but you get the point, unless all these reforms are pushed through with great vigor, then we can't even help on the geography. And of course, both pieces are important, both the domestic piece and the international piece. So, Prime Minister, I will get to other parts of the international, but how do, when people ask you and your government, how these two parts, that is the domestic reform and the international competition, the geopolitical competition, how do they fit together? How do you traverse that difficult terrain? That's a very good question, a very timely question, because the Republic of Moldova is not an isolated country, and of course, everything that is happening domestically is connected with the foreign relations of the Republic of Moldova. In a public discourse, which I made, a public speech which I made at the beginning of my mandate, I said that unfortunately, over the period of 25 years of independence, in Moldova, there were politicians, political voices, which tried to find solutions to the problems encountered in Moldova, either in Moscow or in Washington or in Brussels. And I've said back then that the solutions to the problems encountered by Moldova should not be searched for outside the country. The solutions are within the country. That is why what we have to do is to get ready to work, to start working, to promote, first develop and then promote and then implement the necessary reforms. Because even when we signed the association agreement with the European Union, I said that the integration of the Republic of Moldova in Europe is a matter of domestic policy, rather than a matter of external policy. Through its national domestic policies, the Republic of Moldova has to raise itself to the European standards, and this will bring our country closer to the European Union. That's why from the very beginning, the current government is based on the association agreement that we have signed with the European Union. We developed a quite broad reform agenda, which covers all the areas, because it is impossible to have progress in one area without taking into account what is happening in other areas. For example, the previous discussion that I had at the Department of Commerce, I said that the most important thing for business and for investments is ensuring state of law, because a strong investor will come in a country where he or she will be sure that he will not be unlawfully deprived of his or her business and assets. And if he has a case in court, the trials, the proceedings will be correct and fair. So we started reforming this sector. We focused especially on justice sector. We reformed the prosecution area, the judiciary. We created the National Integrity Agency, reformed the National Anti-Corruption Center, and many, many other reforms. Unfortunately, we are still moving at a slow pace, and the latest events which took place in Kishino, I'm talking about the decisions taken by courts of law, which overturn the results of the local elections in Kishino, prove that not everything is good in justice. There is still a lot to be done in justice. And it is not in vain that at the beginning of this year, when analyzing everything that was done before injustice, we prepared the so-called small reform in justice, which is planned for 2018. And it aims at eliminating other constraints that were identified in this area. It is about ensuring some clear principles and procedures of helping judges accountable. So this is disciplinary accountability for judges. On the other hand, it will introduce some clear principles that will filter the people that will enter the system to make sure that only people with integrity can become judges. In my opinion, everything that happened recently around these court decisions, I urge everyone not to draw quick conclusions. I urge everybody to analyze very carefully deeply to see who will have to win as a result of this, and to take the decisions only after a profound analysis regarding the external relations, including trade relations, but not only trade. Unfortunately, after 2014, when the Republic of Moldova signed an association agreement with the European Union and a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement, the relationship with the Russian Federation worsened because unlike the European Union, which does not impose any restrictions and does not limit the possibility of Moldova to cooperate with other states, the Russian Federation has a different position. So the Russian Federation makes you choose either trade relations with the European Union or trade relations with the Russian Federation or, better said, with the Euro-Asian trade union. The Republic of Moldova has determined its orientation. We do not have either plan A, we do not have plan B, we have only plan A, which is entitled European orientation. And I believe that we will manage to overcome this difficult relation with the Russian Federation. By the way, the Russian Federation imposed customs tax for 18 tariff positions, but which account for 80% of Moldovan experts to the Russian Federation. And actually, this is a violation of the agreements that we have as part of the Commonwealth of Independent States, because we have an agreement stipulating that trade should be free in the Commonwealth area. I hope that soon we will be able to overcome this issue as well. The Republic of Moldova, to make myself very clearly understood, the Republic of Moldova does not have anything against the Russian Federation. The only thing is that during our mandate, the Republic of Moldova has said that what we want is to have a correct relationship with the Russian Federation, even if we are very different countries in terms of size and number of population, nevertheless, the relationship should be based on mutual respect. This is what we want in our relationship with any country. Thank you. That you referred, and you'd probably be disappointed if you didn't get those questions. But in terms of showing your partners, showing the United States, showing the EU, that you in fact are really committed to making these changes, are there things that can be done? Again, in Ukraine, you will recall, the Ukrainians came to the streets after the election, the Orange Revolution in 2004, when there was a corrupt election. And the Ukrainians stayed in the streets until the Supreme Court overturned that election. Do you see any scenario like that that would cause, you just mentioned that we should analyze this carefully before we jump to conclusions. But do you see Moldovans in the streets over the weekend pushing for a more rapid resolution to that question? In early 2016, when this government received the vote of trust in the parliament, the protests were much more massive in Kishino. We took the responsibility to lead the country on the background of a profound crisis and massive protests in Moldova. Throughout the whole period, we proved that we can find solutions to a number of problems and we secured peace within the country. And I said it back then, and this is true for today, that protests are a form of expressing that people have problems. So it's a form of use by people to express their problems for myself personally. And the team I represent, we try to understand these revolts and to take into account what people want to communicate. So I believe these are precious good type for the government because they get you mobilized better and they kind of urge you to find quicker a solution. I do not want to forecast what will happen. What I can tell now is that the government will ensure further on freedom of expression. The government will not intervene with some actions that might limit the freedom of expression and will make sure that solutions are identified. Speaking about the situation in justice, the government does not have any tools to interfere in the justice. The only thing we can do is to amend the legal framework. So the tools that the government has are related only to amending the legal framework so that when they knew the amended legal framework is implemented, the fundamental rights are not violated. Let me ask your foreign minister a question that you've alluded to, Prime Minister. Relations with Europe and relations with Russia, complicated, complex. You've had ongoing conversations in the five plus two which you mentioned and the OSCE has played a role and recently some progress on license plates and bridges and so some actual progress was made. Recently, last week, Moldova and others in the UN put forward a resolution in the General Assembly, not obviously in the Security Council, that would ask for demand, request, all foreign troops to be removed from the sovereign territory of Moldova. The Russians were not pleased. What was the thinking of moving from the OSCE to the UN? Was there a strategy there? Is this a change in policy? How did you come to the decision to go for this resolution? Thank you very much for this question. Indeed, on Friday on June 22nd, a UN resolution has been adopted by a large majority of votes, of 64 votes, in favor of this resolution, named A-72-L-58, named on complete and unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops from the territory of the Republic of Moldova. This has not been something new. It has been a constant position of the government of the Republic of Moldova since we became independent and this has been reiterated in the Istanbul OSCE summit of 1999, where the Russian Federation has committed itself to withdraw fully and unconditionally its troops and munitions from the national sovereign territory of the Republic of Moldova. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Pavel Filip has made at his statement at the General Assembly in September of last year very clearly this priority, which has been reiterated in front of the UN member states and the vote, the historic vote, that occurred on June 22nd has shown international solidarity for Moldova's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and for the first time at the level of the UN it has been officially recognized that any foreign troops and munitions on Moldova's territory, a UN member state, without its host nation consent, is illegal, illegitimate, contradicts with the UN Charter principles, the principles of international law and the principles of the fact that any country should not have its foreign troops on its territory. With regards to, you have mentioned the type of foreign troops, we have to make a very clear distinction of the two types of Russian troops on Moldova's territory. On one hand, based on the 1992 ceasefire agreement between the Republic of Moldova and Russian Federation, the so-called peacekeeping operation has been created, established, where we have Russian soldiers participating. At the same time, there is the former Soviet 14th army that is now stationing as the so-called operative group of Russian troops, OGRT, and not only troops but also munitions amounting to approximately 21,000 tons that are dislocated in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova. And I do believe that this is a very important opportunity for the Republic of Moldova being backed up by so many countries, and I would like to officially express our full appreciation for the co-sponsors of this resolution that have worked with us on the text and have also expressed the solidarity with Moldova but also with the entire UN membership. And I do think that it is a historic moment for Moldova to clearly say to the world that Moldova needs to have its territory without foreign troops. We would like to have normal constructive relations with the Russian Federation but not at the expense of our independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. And this is a clear message to Moscow at the same time that the UN is supporting the position of the Republic of Moldova. And I do think that at this moment it makes our position stronger and this is not news to anyone but it's a sign of solidarity and that countries are supporting the Moldovan government position and the vision of our country without foreign troops. That's a good lead-in actually to the question for the Defense Minister. Minister, I understand that in your Constitution it states that the policy of Moldova will be neutrality. So that suggests that while you might be eventually a member of the EU, probably never a member of NATO. However, you've done the Republic of Moldova and the Armed Forces of Moldova have had some interactions with NATO and indeed have contributed to some NATO operations. How does that work with the Constitution? How does that work with your defense responsibilities in Transnistria and vis-à-vis the Russian Federation? You have a complicated job as well. How do you deal with the neutrality that NATO and the Russians? Thank you, Mr Ambassador. My English is not so good like my... Your English is better than my Romanian. Or my Moldovan, sorry. As you have mentioned, the Constitution stipulates that Moldova is a neutral country and because of that we cannot be part of a military bloc. But it does not prohibit for us to enter into a strategic partnership with the North Atlantic Alliance. Our partnership with NATO is based on two aspects. First, the military one and second, the social one. Prime Minister Pavel Filip said that during the mandate of the current government in the Republic of Moldova a number of reforms were implemented and one of those reforms refers to defense and security. The National Army has initiated a complex reform process and this process is supported and is guided by our partners from NATO, both at the level of the country individually and at the level of NATO as a whole. The second issue refers to the social partners that I mentioned earlier. Here we speak about military medicine, a very important project for the Republic of Moldova which is the evacuation of pesticides from the territory of the Republic of Moldova. A very ambitious project which soon will be completed and using this opportunity I would like to thank all partners, all countries that came with financial contributions to make sure that this project is implemented. Recently we have opened NATO lesson office in Casino, an office which allows us to apply four more projects initiated by the North Atlantic Alliance. Of course from the political perspective for many people this cooperation is not, many people do not agree with this cooperation but for us as a country who wants to ensure its security and territorial integrity of the country it is important to develop a national army according to the international NATO criteria and the standards. As I reply to your question I would say that we do have this partnership and I believe that in the future it will be strengthened. Minister, the prime minister has talked a lot about the importance of trade. He's also talked about the complications of the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement on the one hand and the obligations in both directions of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the constraints that the Russian Federation would like to put on in possible conflict with the obligations and opportunities of a free trade agreement with the EU. The prime minister has also mentioned how important investment is and he's emphasized how important the judicial system is for investor confidence. As you look at the relationship with the European market and the CIS market, the Russian market, how do you try to make those compatible? How do you deal with those kinds of pressures in both directions? Thank you. First I think every market for us is important and we are doing everything possible to get new markets on the way as well. The situation that happened four years ago with Russia for example the embargo for our products made us better to look forward and to market our products better in looking for some new markets, new opportunities and here the so-called DCFTA we call it actually it's a free trade agreement but DC is deep and comprehensive so this free trade agreement gave us an opportunity to enter a new market, a big potential number of customers in the European market. When we signed this agreement we had a very hard work making and analyzing what would be the benefits for us for Moldova by having this agreement signed. According to those estimations we the experts showed us a potential increase of 5.4 percent on the GDP of the country. The 16 percent growth of the exports towards EU and 8 percent growth of imports from the European Union. Big number of taxes coming down to zero. Today I'm happy to mention that we are almost 65 percent of our exports are going to EU in the same and that was a very soft move from Russia market to EU market. But like I mentioned before we really worked a lot, we improved our product, we invested in the quality of the product, we invested in the marketing of our products so now that is giving us a possibility to see on the shelves of big chain stores our products and we are happy to see that. In this agreement we see very clear specification of the quality of the products, the specification of the product itself like quotas for grapes, for apple, for all type of plums, wines and different types of food products. Also we grow in terms of number of companies which are exporting to EU. Today the total number of companies which are exporting to EU accounts like 1,360 companies and like I said total exports which is going to European market is 60 percent, 65 percent. That is not limiting ourselves the DCFTA agreement or free trade agreement of European Union is not limiting ourselves only towards this market. I was so happy yesterday walking on Washington in Georgetown somewhere we stopped at one shop, winery shop. On purpose I entered that shop and I was asking to the owner do you have Moldovan wine? He said yes you find it somewhere there in the shop. Even I make some pictures I was so happy to see big number of different products, winery products from Moldova on the shelves in the center of Washington. So that is showing that okay our products are not limited to the European market we can see and find them everywhere including China. I'm sure over there there will be some stores where you'll find but talking about wine is one of the products we are happy and we are proud to provide all around the world. This is very quality, very tasty and that's something that some of you have been to Moldova. Moldovan wine is world famous. Krikava is also world famous so many of us have been there as well. Thank you, Minister. Good so a very wide set of issues. Let me now ask those of you who have come here to all right and here is a question right away here I'll you start right here. I think this is a Moldovan. So there's a microphone you can state your name and if you have a specific minister or prime minister that you'd like to address. Hello my name is Inga Vanasiva and I'm here in my private capacity as citizen of Moldova. Really glad for the opportunity to be here because those of us who are from diaspora we know that the meeting with the prime minister has been cancelled. We were very disappointed so here I am to ask a couple of questions. So the one thing you wouldn't be disappointed Ambassador Taylor it is about the court decision. The fact that the meeting with the diaspora was cancelled is the least of the offenses of this government. We all know that the Supreme Court of Justice has just uphold a lower court decision to annul the results of the elections for the city hall for the mayor of the Kishineau and that led to protests in the streets. Now my question to the prime minister is I hear from what you said earlier that you seem surprised by the decision. However we know that we have a captured state. The public institutions do serve the private interests of Vlad Blokotnik and his cronies and now with this decision of the court we also have a captured society in which our votes no longer count. So my question to his prime minister what are you going to do the moment you land in Kishineau and from what you said earlier should I deduct that you will join the protesters. And my second question is about the reforms. So I hear here about you know the reform of the judiciary system. The reforms that we're doing in the military. However the center for the anti-corruption center was created more than a decade ago. The elimination of pesticides, the evacuation of pesticides that's a two decades affair. Let's talk about things that you have done and the three priorities that you mentioned. One was infrastructure development. The second one was education reform and education and thirdly was judiciary reform. I would really like to hear the things that you will do to change the current system the current situation because you know coming and telling us about things that previous governments have done or things that happened long time ago that will not that will not improve the situation. So I really want to hear exactly what you're going to do. Very good question. Thank you very much. Prime Minister you want to start off with this. Thank you very much for these questions. After I land in Kishinau I will go and I'll continue to work and I will do exactly the same things that I have been done I have been doing for the past two years and a half. In my speech I referred only to the reforms that were implemented by the current government. When I referred to the national anti-corruption center I did not mean its establishment but its reform. This was a very important reform. Let me give you an answer item by item. I have many questions regarding this court decision the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice which upheld the decision of the appellate court and which upheld the decision of the first instance court. My question is who will have to win as a result of this decision being taken and my answer is for sure not our government not the current government and I will give you arguments in this regard. The opposition since early 2016 used to ask the external partners not to give money to the Republic of Moldova. This was made they made an addressing directly to IMF not to give money to the Republic of Moldova because this government is formed by oligarchs who do not work for citizens. Those from IMF have a very pragmatic attitude and they took into account the things that we actually done. So we've managed to sign a program with the International Monetary Fund we have reached the third review already. Thanks to this program other external funding was deblocked including the EU funding. I will not tell you what this program covers but before that we used to have a roadmap with the European Commission consisting of 28 points and all the reforms envisaged in that roadmap were implemented. Why now we have this decision when the Republic of Moldova was expected to receive in one week time macro financial assistance from the European Union. The Republic of Moldova after the European Commission already took the decision to provide direct budget support. So to take into account other funding the total volume was about 100 million euro. On the basis of all the statements that we have heard both locally and from outside there is a huge risk that as a result of this court decision the Republic of Moldova will not receive this funding and this is what will hit the current government and no one will change my opinion. One more thing I would like to say. I want to say what this government approved in the justice sector. This is about the law on the prosecution which envisages the establishment of specialized prosecution offices. You know that it was not possible to approve this law for a number of years and it was coordinated with our external partners. After this we implemented this strategy on the justice sector. We also developed the anti-corruption strategy. We also approved the legal framework on the establishment of the national integrity agency and this agency was already set up and now they are employing the necessary staff. We also created the agency for the recovery of crime assets. I believe that not everyone liked this and we have to be frank. We have to say that lots of things were done in justice but still there are many problems unsolved. What it is important now is to continue the reforms that were started. They have to be fully implemented. That's very important. I do not want to speak about all the other reforms that were included in the broad reform agenda of the government. I will just say that I have many questions regarding this court decision. Who will have to, who will be the winners as a result of this situation and I believe we will soon find an answer to this question. But if we are very emotional and I understand very well the opposition because they try to gain political dividends as a result of this, but I believe we need to have a pragmatic approach. We have to think with a cold mind and then we'll find an answer regarding the captured state and so on and so forth. I do not want to comment these things because if we captured the state in order to implement a reform agenda that's one thing but I am tired from one perspective to receive these accusations during this period, last period of times and I said that the best appreciation our development partners are in the best position to assess our work so they have a pragmatic approach and they can assess whether we have fulfilled the commitments that we took. When I spoke about the pesticides I did not present it as a reform. Regarding the reform that we do in the defense area I'd like to say that it is for the first time in the history of Moldova of 27 years when money is invested in the national army. When we're not begging from our partners to ask government has started to invest in the national security. Recently a program was approved entitled professional army. It is a very ambitious program for a three-year period. Its goal is to enhance the professional level of the national army. It also envisages a gradual increase in the budget for defense and also appropriate equipment up to the international standards, replacement of the old Soviet equipment and armament. We will soon approve the national defense strategy. This document has a strategic importance. We didn't have such a document before. Now it is in the parliamentary committees and it will be approved soon. Regarding the cooperation with NATO immediately when the national defense strategy is approved we will approve the military strategy. Again this strategy was developed together with our partners from the North Atlantic Alliance and it somehow it shows how the national army will be ranging near how it should be equipped. And this process has one purpose to ensure internal security. As we are in neutral state we have to assure our security by ourselves but also to be able to contribute to the regional security both in the NATO format and the UN format. Percentage of the population in Moldova considers Russian language their native language and also other plans in Moldova to follow example of Latvia which many human rights activists consider discriminatory to eliminate all Russian language education including privately institutes and schools. Thank you. Fortunately I do not know the latest statistical data regarding the percentage of people who regard Russian as their native language but what I can tell you we have approved a strategy for national minorities in the Republic of Moldova and we will make sure that the right to study in the native language is ensured as well as the right to express oneself in the language that the one knows and wants to use. Again that's an artificial program created artificially in the Republic of Moldova a problem that is launched by politicians in order to divide the society. We inherited a divided society a part of the population looks towards Russia another part of the population looks towards the west but this is fostered by some political parties which use such messages in order to gain more votes either pro-Russian votes or pro-western votes. What we focus on is on the economic dimension and on increasing the welfare of all citizens of the Republic of Moldova it does not matter the nationality and it does not matter what language they speak the Republic of Moldova should have a unified population. Another thing that I want to tell you is about the popularity of the orientation towards the European Union or Eurasian and one thing I'm proud of is that one of my ambitious objective announced from the very beginning was to make sure that the European path is becomes an irreversible path for the Republic of Moldova and if at the beginning of 2016 34 percent of our population were for EU and 49 were for Eurasian Union according to the latest surveys made by the European Commission we can see that 60 percent now are for European Union and only 34 percent are for the Eurasian Union thank you thank you my name is Nikolai Taniqifor and I'm a graduate student at Georgetown University Arab Studies program so I have two questions questions for Minister Ulyanovsky our first one is with regard to the UN resolution that was adopted I wanted to ask on its implications because as you mentioned this is not a new issue and it's known for many years but what are the next steps considering the outcome of the vote that we saw at the UN and the second question is related to the Middle East because as Ambassador Taylor mentioned at the beginning the external politics of the Republic of Moldova is very complicated we have the relations with US, EU, Russia but also I wanted to say about the Middle East and we have the opening of the embassies and we have the one in Doha and in the Emirates very recently so I wanted to ask you about that thank you thank you so much for the question I will speak in English not in Arabic because I have worked previously in Qatar in Doha and indeed as Thomas Friedman says you know the world is flat today and I think Moldova has to diversify and it is diversifying its bilateral and multilateral cooperation Middle East of course is a is a topic of hot interest for the world politics and Moldova should be engaged and should be following the developments on the ground but also not losing the opportunities to establish direct cooperation with emerging markets and having in mind the investment opportunities provided by countries where we have opened recently embassies that is Qatar and also UAE and I am particularly proud to have the support of the Prime Minister that we have managed to finally opened just a couple of months ago the embassy in Abu Dhabi and it was extremely rewarding when I was there to open the the embassy together with the Minister of Economy as well who was participating at the first Moldova UAE business forum there were so many Moldovans participating at the opening ceremony of the embassy and they were even crying and thank you they're saying thank you so much for this government that they were thinking for the huge amounts of Moldovans living in JCC area and this is in my opinion reflects the priority of foreign policy meaning geopolitical cooperation with the Middle East domestic and foreign economic diplomacy working on bilateral economic relations and trade volume expansion and third the fact that the priority of the government of Moldova and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are the Moldovan community living abroad and in this particular situation in JCC area so I do think it's a win-win and I do have high hopes that we'll be able to further expand the potential of this cooperation and I do believe on a separate note that Moldova should have diplomatic presence on every continent in the world because today you have to be everywhere and that leads to my to your first question with relationship to the UN resolution to have and we had the support and solidarity of so many member states from various parts of the world of course there was a common EU position on that we had the support of Northern America but we have support and we took a lot of effort to reach out Latin American countries because still we don't have an embassy there it took us an effort to reach to African countries because of the number and the priorities that they have and that is why I do think that in the near future and we it was initiative of this government to open a Moldovan embassy on every continent and that will help us in the future to get even bigger and stronger support from all the regions in the world with regards to your first question on on this resolution indeed as I mentioned it was a strong show of solidarity of the UN this is a non sanctioning or not legally binding resolution but it's a strong manifesto of the level of the UN that foreign troops should leave the territory of the republic of Moldova the operative group of Russian forces should be evacuated with drone as also the ongoing peacekeeping operation should be transformed into an international civilian operation as soon as possible and I do believe I'm a strong believer in the five plus two format in the confidence building measures which have registered positive results and if this force or military element with be will be withdrawn from the from this context of negotiations it will give a much better potential in a peaceful manner without any military pressure for the consultations and for the implementation of the confidence building measures to reach to have better results to have the results faster indeed I do believe that it the resolution that has just been passed will allow us to use the UN as a further platform to initiate other actions initiatives and to have the international community support to send a very clear message to the Russian Federation that the foreign troops or the Russian troops and munitions should be withdrawn from the national territory of the republic of Moldova so I do thank you for the question and thank you for reminding me of my previous experience in the Middle East sir right here and then my gackle from Radio Free Europe I wanted to come back to the issue of the high courts the Supreme Court's decision and pinpoint exactly what your position on the court's decision is you seem to be suggesting that it perhaps was legitimate that there was the court may have been tainted by I don't know political influence what exactly do you propose to do about it if anything also your answer to the previous question suggested that there will be winners that result from this court's decision and then you go on to talk about the political opposition reaping political dividends from the court's decision in your opinion who who is the winner from this decision is it the political opposition is that what you're saying thank you I do not want to express my opinion whether this decision was lawful or not I will just express my opinion because lawyers or those who have education in law and know this area can tell us whether this is lawful or not but my opinion and using the knowledge that I have I think some violations were done during the electoral period but the violations were not that many so that the result of the election be overturned so if there were some violations maybe the court could have issued a fine or other form of sanctioning the electoral competitors who will have to win as a result of this I leave you to decide about the information that I gave to you show that the current government will be affected by this decision by this court decision what I want to say is that we need to have a very profound and deep analysis of what was happening and we have to try to connect more dots because I remember an important reform that I really am proud of and we managed to implement was the reform of the pension system in the republic of Moldova when we tried to bring more equity among all categories of people all groups of people and of course under the old system judges were very much privileged for example the pension was 80 percent from the salary so from the very beginning the salaries of judges was much higher than the salary of a teacher or a doctor and the replacement rate of four pension is about 26 percent we developed a law we approved it in the government after this it was approved by the parliament but the judges mobilized they joined their forces and they appealed this law at the constitutional court and the chapter focusing on the pension for judges was overtent was annulled so I have many questions regarding what happened this time one more time I will say I do not see any logics in these actions and I believe that the political class uses what happens now for their political purposes in order to have more political dividends before the parliament elections that are planned for late this year in the republic of Moldova on the other hand just a couple of words more throughout the whole period when the first instance court approved its judgment I was contacted by representatives of a number of external partners I will not give you names so they came they met with me and they told me look what happened now in the court of law is catastrophic but you have time two days to make sure that the appellate court issues another judgment but my question was what can I do as prime minister I do not get an answer to this question and still I don't know what is the answer to this question what should I have done should I pick up the phone and call the judge should I have went to the court why what could I have done because if you try to put pressure on the court this automatically leads to a criminal case all the tools that we had are public pressure I made a statement where I presented my position regarding this court decision because the government can only come up with legislative initiatives to amend the legal framework in order not to give any space of interpretation for judges and this is exactly what we are doing we analyze the situation we try to see the problems that still exist and then we review again the legal framework that's how we ended up with the small justice small reforming justice as we call it that is supposed to be implemented by the end of this year three final questions here and we'll bundle them up if that's okay with you I've I've said so that's one two and three so so first one right here Andrew Castle from IREX I actually work on USAID's new community media program working on direct citizen participation decentralization reform in Moldova and so my question is where do you all see the future of decentralization reform in the country good so decentralization first question second question Manuela thank you Manuela Motti is my name and I'm here in a capacity as a Romanian citizen and I have a question for Prime Minister of Moldova as Ambassador Taylor had mentioned previously you live in a very complicated environment and this is also given by your dependency upon Russian energy so what are you doing to increase the share of energy supply from other sources than your Russian neighbor and maybe you can give us a little bit of updates on the projects that you have ongoing with Romania on electricity and gas and perhaps maybe you have also some other projects in the future thank you thank you right here yes so first here and then we are going to get to okay Ambassador Smith here and then then you so we'll have four questions here Ambassador Smith no no no that's fine that's fine well those of us who have lived and worked in Moldova love it and want to see only the very best for Moldova it is very encouraging to hear that trade is moving in a sustainable direction I have heard that tourism is also becoming a strong sector of the economy I think we all know that some of Moldova's most talented young people are actually in the diaspora and need to be listened to and dealt with and made part of the political dialogue I hope that can happen so to sustain the positive trends and put the negatives more to rest it would seem to me that another embrace of democratic transparent governance is essential and an early way to demonstrate the importance and commitment to such principles would be in the upcoming election to make sure that it is free and fair and observed and seen to be free and fair as well the comments would be welcome thank you ambassador last question right here right behind you very good I'm Omita scary and capacity here is a researcher at the University of California Berkeley my gratitude Mr. Prime Minister and your cabinet for coming here today at the U.S. Institute of Peace and and dialoguing with us my question one topic of which the Prime Minister referred to and someone else in the audience as well regards the Republic of Moldova's concern of energy security and I'm interested also in Mr. Capuric's opinion on this is the Minister of Economy besides the nearly 20 percent of Moldova's energy that comes from renewable sources electricity etc what specific steps is the republic taking to create a competitive market in fossil fuels that can better ease its integration of the European economy thank you so four questions but two of them are on energy and then and Prime Minister I'm told by your folks that it's okay to go a little bit after the 330 time so if we will we'll use this to run is that okay because you heard it Prime Minister I would like to thank everyone for these questions these are very important questions and I'm very glad that you follow the developments in the Republic of Moldova the first question referred to decentralization of the Republic of Moldova sorry territorial decentralization in the Republic of Moldova during this mandate I insisted on the central administration reform and we reformed the government as a result of this reform we out of 16 ministries we have only nine ministries the positions of deputy ministers were cancelled and we introduced the position of state secretaries this was a very important thing because the deputy ministers would come and go when the government changed because they were state dignitaries but state secretaries are public officials who are not removed when the government is replaced which means that in the ministries we will ensure continuity of the policies and institutional memory all the economic companies were removed from this coordination of ministries and now they are subordinated to the public agency public procurement agency and what means that ministers will focus on policies not on management of companies now we work on the reform of local public administration the territorial administrative reform because in the Republic of Moldova currently we have more than 900 mayor's offices which afford our number of population is a huge number we work on several models we have several scenarios and hopefully we'll finalize the concept of this reform we will consult it with the congress of local authorities and hopefully we will implement it immediately after the parliamentary elections our goal I have to admit is very optimistic our objective is to manage to implement this reform after the parliamentary elections before the next local elections regarding electricity or energy I will allow minister of economy to reply but in general I would like to say that we haven't always worried about this issue because the Republic of Moldova had only one supplier of energy and of course so it was very vulnerable because of this we can divide it in two areas gas and electricity regarding gas a project was developed with envisages connecting Moldova to the gas system of Romania which actually means connection to the EU gas system this project was very important for me unfortunately the deadlines that you plan never will coincide with what you have in real life but in the end we had to find a solution so that the Republic of Moldova does not invest this money because it's a huge amount of money and at the same time to be in secured with an alternative supply of gas and this was possible after reaching an agreement with our colleagues from Romania and here I'm referring to trans gas who accepted to take over this project and to make this investment in the Republic of Moldova through by purchasing the best mold trans gas company and this according to this project the construction works will start in September and it is planned to implement it within 10 months because the distance is not that long in such a way in mid 2019 the Republic of Moldova will have already energy security on the gas side regarding electricity initially we had some talks to ensure not only security but also energy independence in terms of electricity after having a number of discussions with the experts who know very well this area we reached the conclusion that Moldova should not invest in an atomic plant or other plants to produce electricity because our neighbors I speak about Romania and Ukraine produce electricity more than they need so there is no sense for us to invest in this it is important to make sure that we can take electricity both from Romania and from Ukraine and for this the systems are different we have asynchronous and synchronous systems so there are two possibilities either together with Ukraine to align to the single electricity transportation system of the European Union this requires a longer period of time and another project is to install back-to-back station which ensures transportation of electricity from one system to another either from Romania to Moldova or from Moldova to Romania and I believe this is more realistic project funding is necessary and for this we have already signed an agreement with EBRD and the first connection will be done from Salce Volcaniash Kishinou and then we'll have two other interconnections with Romania regarding your question with elections I was the one who was very glad to hear the results of the local elections I declared that we had free and correct relations and I said that this is proved by the fact that the elections were won by a representative of the opposition and I was really glad to hear who won the elections but the recent event show us that the issue here is not to organize so fair and open elections the problem lies in the justice sector and one more thing I would like to say which I did not say today I represent a political formation as well and this precedent that was created now is dangerous for my political formation as well for the parliamentary elections that is why before then I believe we have as a matter of emergency to analyze and for us to fully understand what happened and to come with the necessary corrective measures in the legal framework related to justice sector to make sure that once people express their vote and elections were fair and transparent no one to have the possibility to intervene for the court not to be able to intervene in any way so these were the questions thank you very much for these questions I don't know if the minister would like to add something so there are basically three main important things one is the guest and we have it done already in terms of documentation so we signed the agreement begin end of March 28th of March on this perspective we are working now we have a big group from our team working on the documentation side including the expropriation of the lands including the construction documentation and approvals authorizations and stuff like that they're working from their side we have the plan to start end of August so as prime minister mentioned next year we will have this this alternative second is the electricity security and we have a main task to take a decision this year and to start upon based on that decision the way we are getting connected and the third one is the renewables you mentioned about that and I'm glad to to mention that we have the law in place this year the law is motivating the business to get on to come on the investment in this sector is regalimentating the the rules of the this specific market and all this efforts government is doing in order to give a better independence to the Republic of Moldova thank you thank you so ladies and gentlemen I think you will agree that we had a good discussion here some difficult problems to address directly we appreciate that I said at the beginning that Moldova is an interesting but complicated country Ambassador Courtney wanted to learn about Moldova and I think he's learned a lot about that here this afternoon we've also learned that there is Moldovan wine in Georgetown so this is this is good we can go buy some of that but I want to just conclude you had a good meeting and understand with the Secretary of State Secretary Pompeo and he said that we want to be your staunch ally but make it easy for us and make it easy for us is the reforms that you've been talking about in particular the one that Ambassador Smith just talked about in terms you have a real opportunity on upcoming elections and Prime Minister your comment your last comment about lessons learned from the election as well as the judicial reform that's necessary I think are very important they will see how the elections come out before let me thank the interpreter who did a great job thank you very much behind the screen you can't see her but she's done a fine job and please join me in thanking the Prime Minister and his cabinet for being with us thank you