The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will today make the trip to Moldova that he was forced to suspend a little more than a month ago because of the parliamentary vote on the decree-law to deal with the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
According to Moncloa sources, Sánchez will start his official trip to Chisinau at the Residence of the President of the Republic of Moldova, where he will hold a bilateral meeting with the head of state, Maia Sandu. The meeting will conclude with the signing of a joint institutional Declaration. Subsequently, the President of the Government will be received at the headquarters of the Moldovan Government by the Prime Minister of Moldova, Natalia Gavrilița.
After this meeting, Sánchez will visit the center for Ukrainian refugees in Chisinau, at the MoldExpo site. Moldova is, together with Poland, one of the two countries that have received the most Ukrainian refugees (more than 430,000, according to UNHCR) since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began last February 24. The day will conclude with a working dinner of the President of the Government and the President of the Republic of Moldova, with their respective delegations, at the State Residence of the Republic of Moldova.
Therefore, Pedro Sánchez will resume the same official agenda planned for his trip to Moldova at the end of April, which also included a visit to Poland and was suspended due to the uncertainty about the outcome of the vote on the decree-law with measures to address the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. That trip was to coincide with increased tension in Moldova over the possibility that Russia might try to extend its offensive in Ukraine to the Moldovan separatist region of Transnistria.
After the suspension of the official visit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, had a telephone conversation with his Moldavian counterpart, Nicu Popescu, to whom he promised to reinforce the diplomatic representation in Chisinau by opening, “in the coming weeks”, a “permanent presence”. Spain has no Embassy in Chisinau and is represented in Moldova from the Embassy in Bucharest. On the other hand, Moldova has had an Embassy in Madrid since July 2010.
