Romania and the Republic of Moldova Sign the Treaty on Borders

Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Baconschi and Moldavian Prime Minister Vlad Filat signed the Treaty on Border Regime, Collaboration and Mutual Assistance in Border Matters.

The document is purely technical, bringing under regulation aspects such as the maintenance of border signs or the usage of railways and roads crossing the border.
‘We hope that this borderline will gradually fade away and become a border within the European Union, once all prerequisites have been met,’ Minister Teodor Baconschi stated.

The head of Romanian diplomacy added that this document could silence some of the false accusations against Romania.

‘It is our belief that through this gesture we also discourage the recurrent allegations made in some Moldavian political circles with respect to a fictitious irredentist agenda of the Romanian Government,’ Teodor Baconschi said.

The treaty is to be ratified by the Romanian and Moldavian Parliaments.

Asked whether a Parliament with a different composition from the current one might refuse to ratify the treaty after elections, Prime Minister Vlad Filat expressed his optimism.

‘The future Moldavian Parliament will have the necessary composition to ensure democratic governance, to continue the European aspirations of the country and also to ratify this important document,’ Vlad Filat replied.

Although the treaty had been announced in advance, the date of signing has never been made public until now. On October 13th, Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi announced that the text of the document had been drafted without mentioning a date for the signing ceremony.

President Traian Băsescu had previously declared on television that he didn’t exclude the possibility of signing an agreement with the pro-European Moldavian Government, regarding the regulation of traffic across the state border, ‘so as to disprove the communists’ claim that Romania wants to annex the Republic of Moldova.’

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the signing of the treaty

The signing of the treaty was first announced not by the Romanian or Moldavian authorities, but by the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, who welcomed the event during his stay in Bucharest.

According to Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi, the two states decided to let the President of the European Commission make the announcement as an act of courtesy.

The treaty is meant to establish a modern judicial regime of the joint border and lay the ground for future collaboration between the border authorities of the two states.

The treaty mainly deals with marking the border line, settling issues related to building common units on the border, border maintenance, the usage of border waters, railways and roads, as well as of other communication installations crossing the state border and the means of investigating and settling conflicts generated by the occurrence of a breach of the state border regime.

The signing of the treaty continues this year’s series of major bilateral agreements between Romania and the Republic of Moldova: fifteen agreements, including the one on small frontier traffic, the opening of Romanian Consulate General offices in Bălţi, Cahul and the Consulate General of the Republic of Moldova in Iaşi or the inauguration of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Chişinău.


Translated by: Ruxandra Câmpeanu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University