State Secretary to Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Diana Janse will visit Moldova on January 16-17. The visit takes place in the context of Sweden’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the wider regional consequences of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Continued support to Ukraine and Moldova is a major foreign policy objective and a priority for Sweden. We see that Moldova is directly affected by the Russian aggression against Ukraine and that Moldova has taken on a huge responsibility by receiving a very large number of refugees”, says Janse.
During the visit, State Secretary Diana Janse will meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Nicu Popescu, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ana Revenco, Minister of Environment of Moldova Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov, as well as with civil society partners, local authorities, and international partners.
“Moldova’s future is in Europe and we congratulate the country on receiving a candidate status to become a member of the European Union. The path to membership is long and requires diligent work from all institutions. Sweden will remain by Moldova’s side throughout this process”, continues Janse.
Background on Sweden’s reform cooperation with Moldova
Sweden is a long-standing partner to Moldova. The support is channeled as direct bilateral cooperation as well as support through the EU development funds. Sweden is also one of the largest donors to Moldova. In 2022, Sweden provided 16 million euro in development cooperation, and in addition to this, 14 million euro in energy crisis response and 6 million euro in humanitarian refugee response.
The Swedish cooperation aims at supporting Moldova’s European integration with a focus on the promotion of human rights, gender equality, democracy, the rule of law, peaceful and inclusive societies, environment and climate resilient development and inclusive economic development. Sweden applies a rights-based approach where economic development goes hand in hand with the empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the Moldovan society.
