Moldova PM Recean invites Indian students and tourists, calls India ‘important player’ globally

Moldova's Prime Minister Dorin Recean has recognised India as an “important player on the international scene” and has extended an invitation to Indian students, tourists, and investors to visit his country.

In an interview with our diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal in Chișinău, the Moldovan capital, he praised India's economic growth, stating, “I would like to congratulate India for becoming one of the fastest-growing large economies. This is great for India and for the world as well.”

He emphasised Moldova's enthusiasm of strengthening ties with India, noting “India, we see, is becoming more and more an important player on the international scene. And we are very glad that we open our relationships with India.”

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Prime Minister Recean expressed a desire to attract more Indian students to Moldova. He assured that Moldovan universities are gearing up to welcome additional Indian students, with English-speaking teachers, adequate learning facilities, comfortable living conditions, and affordable prices.

The PM also spoke about his country's desire to join the EU, and how it has been hosting many Ukrainian refugees amid the conflict in Ukraine. He said, "Our objective is to be an equal member of the European Union and together as a large union, to be an example for the world on how to develop and how to bring prosperity to people"

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see Moldova's relationship with the European Union evolving in the next few years, and what steps are you taking to strengthen this relationship? Are you hopeful of becoming an EU member?

Dorin Recean: Since the December decision of the Council to open negotiations of the European Union with Moldova, we are preparing legislation. We are preparing the institutions. We're preparing the society in order to make the necessary reforms to become a democratic, resilient democracy so that we qualify for this membership. In October we will have a referendum that will be about exposing this question to the people of Moldova so that they decide on this very important matter. Most of the people in Moldova, the strong majority, are already on board. We want these decisions to be taken and correspondingly be included in our constitution.

Sidhant Sibal: So, there are reports which say that your country has signed a pact with the European Union, a security pact, which will see more military engagementwith Brussels. Can you just talk about it? Do you think that it's a change in your stance, in your neutrality stance?

Dorin Recean: In the current environment, Moldova is strengthening its defence capacity, and we understand this not only is the responsibility of Moldova and for the Moldovan society, but also for the region. This is why we have strong cooperation with the European Union but also with other allies and friends in order to strengthen our defence capabilities. We are very next to the war. Moldova actually has 1200 kilometres of border with Ukraine, where Russia is waging a brutal and unjust war against the Ukrainians. And this is why it is our responsibility to protect this border not only for us, but also for our EU member states.

Sidhant Sibal: So you're confirming the signing of the security pact.

Dorin Recean: Yeah, we do have security arrangements and agreements with various countries, so that we can train, we can develop the capabilities and we can also benefit from the acquisitions of defence needs.

Sidhant Sibal: So now coming to the situation you talked about, it's been two years since the situation in Ukraine has been something that has been worrisome for not only Europe, but for the world as well. What has been the stakes for Moldova? How have you been dealing with that?

Dorin Recean: First of all, we have to define clearly, what is this situation in Ukraine and in Ukraine, what we have is a Russian aggression against Ukraine, against our neighbours and obviously, this affects very much, the Moldovan society, the Moldovan economy. And please know that there are also illegally stationed Russian troops here in Moldova in the Transnistrian region. So we are very much impacted by the Russian aggression in Ukraine, but also in other places. Correspondingly, we are strengthening our capabilities, we're strengthening our defence. Now not only in military terms, but also in terms of Russia waging a hybrid war against Moldova, through propaganda, through paid for protest through war, organised squads, squads to attack our police or our institutions. So, I confirm that this is very much affecting Moldova.

Sidhant Sibal: Do you think the work would spread to your country?

Dorin Recean: At this stage, it is not possible, a military escalation but as I said, Russia is waging a hybrid war against us.

Sidhant Sibal: This has also led to a major refugee crisis. Your country issmall, and it has hosted a large number of Ukrainian refugees. If you can talk about how your country has been supporting the Ukrainian refugees for the last two years.

Dorin Recean: First of all, I would like to say that I'm very proud of the people of Moldova, when the Russian aggression started in Ukraine in February 2022. It's not only that the Moldova institutions reacted, but immediately also the Moldovan society, people of Moldova reacted, they were going to the to the borders, receiving the refugees that were running out of the Ukraine because of the war mostly children and women and close to one million refugees crossed Moldova back then. At a certain point in time, about 15% of the population were refugees. Currently, we are still hosting almost 100,000 refugees from Ukraine, half of them women, half of them children, and we take care of them. We are integrating them into our society into the public services so that children can go to the kindergarten, to the school, to the universities, but also for the adults to be part of our social care system, medical assistance system. So this is the effort that we are making for our friends and neighbours, Ukrainians.

Sidhant Sibal: What's your biggest concern or fear with the war at your doorstep? And additionally, do you foresee the war coming to an end anytime soon?

Dorin Recean: The biggest issue is the atrocities that Russia is committing in Ukraine. Killing people, killing men, women, older people, children, that is the biggest humanitarian problem. Obviously, the war next to our border is a problem for Moldova as well, in economic terms, in social terms. So this is a problem, actually, not just for Moldova, but for the whole of Europe. And I would say also for the whole of the world, when International Law is not respected and when a country is allowed to brutally intervene and to kill people in another country.

Sidhant Sibal: Switzerland is going to host the peace summit, any hopes?

Dorin Recean: I think what is important is that more and more countries agree on a solution to support Ukraine so that Ukraine can regain its territory and be able to end this war.

Sidhant Sibal: Now moving to the larger problems perhaps in Europe, how do you see immigration as an issue for theEuropean continent?

Dorin Recean: I think it is important for all the countries to be able to build a system so that migration is an asset actually, and economic and social assets. And correspondingly to build the institutions but also the culture to be able to integrate into the society. We have this experience as I said, already, we're hosting almost 100,000 refugees from Ukraine and you would see that they are very much welcome here in Moldova, and Moldovans feel good about.

Sidhant Sibal: My question is largely related to immigration from outside the larger European region. What's your view? Do you see it as a challenge for Europe?

Dorin Recean: If migration is managed well, then it is an asset.

Sidhant Sibal: Now moving to something that perhaps for the first time a leader is talking about that India-Moldova relationship, how do you see the relationship between the two countries panning out?

Dorin Recean: First of all, I would like to congratulate India for becoming the fastest-growing large economies and I think this is great for India, but this is great for the world as well. India, we see, is becoming more and more an important player on the international scene. And we are very glad that we open our relationships with India. We are very glad that we opened our embassy in Delhi and hope that soon India will also open by reciprocity an embassy here in Chișinău. We see a great potential for exchanges, social exchanges, but also economic exchange. Moldova, you will see, has great potential in agriculture, particularly wines, in IT, in pharmaceuticals, in energy, and correspondingly both countries can benefit from this opportunity. I would like to mention that already. We have a large Indian contractor building our electricity, high voltage line that integrates our grid into the European Union grid. We have a large student community here of Indians, studying particularly pharmaceuticals and medicine. We would like to increase this effort so that more Indians can come here and study and work. We see great potential for the Indian IT and business service providers to open near-shoring operations here in Moldova. So, we see great potential.

Sidhant Sibal: What are you doing to get investment from India? Why should an Indian businessman invest in Moldova, what are the sectors that they should look forward to?

Dorin Recean: Let me let me tell you, the fact that Moldova has great potential as I said in pharmaceuticals, in IT, in energy, in agricultural , industrialisation of agriculture, and Moldova now has open access to the market of the European Union, which is the largest, the largest market in the world, with the most wealthy consumers. So, this is the great potential, and this is the great asset that Moldova has. The other opportunity is for the Indian investments here for equipment manufacturing for electronics, not only for the European market, but also in preparation of the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see India's role in terms of global governance? India is a leading voice in the global south, it has taken a leadership role in many senses. So, in those ways, how do you see India taking the mantle of global leadership?

Dorin Recean: I said, we are we are very glad to see India growing and correspondingly this means also more responsibility and we welcome this assuming of responsibility by India to become to become a voice for the Global South, but also a voice that is making sure that the there is an equilibrium in the world. We see now, quite a number of crises and this crisis need to be managed responsibly, and big democracies are playing a very important role in making sure that international law is observed.

Sidhant Sibal: And how do you plan to welcome Indian students, something you are very interested in.

Dorin Recean: We have a special program, now that we have an embassy in Delhi. We have a special program to advertise and to show the opportunities over for education here in Moldova. We also opened consular services so that it is much easier to apply and receive a visa. Here at home, the universities are preparing themselves to host additional students from India with the places to learn, with the teachers speaking English with all the necessary for comfortable living and at affordable prices. So, we already have quite an important capacity to host additional students, but we are also working hard on increasing capacity. On that matter, I would like to say that the community here is quite vibrant. The city, the capital but also other cities in Moldova, are very good places to live, very good places to entertain yourself. So, this is again also a very important component of a student's experience.

Sidhant Sibal: How do you plan to pitch Moldova as a tourism destination for the Indian travellers who have been pretty much going out? I mean, many countries have even announced visa-free for Indian tourists. So how will you pitch tourism for the Indian tourists?

Dorin Recean: You will see places here that you won't see anywhere in the world. I'll give you just one example. Imagine a kilometre of underground cellars and on the left side of the road and on the right side of the road, you drive by car, you'd see barrels with wine. So, I very much hope and kindly ask you to show this to Indians at home, but also to the global south. We already made virtual tours so that people can virtually travel into these Cellars. But I'm sure that nothing can compare it to actual experience. Apart from that, we have some other natural beauties that are great for tourists. We also have the so-called wine tours where you can go from winery to winery, and there you can taste various types of wines but also taste great, great food.

Sidhant Sibal: Especially when it comes to wine, Moldovan wine, I'm trying to pitch to the Indian consumer as well. I mean, it's quite popular here, I could feel that going on the streets, but Moldovan wine is still not popular in India or maybe the global south.

Dorin Recean: We have to do a bigger effort in advertising, wines and Moldovan wineries and Moldovan wine culture. Okay, what I'd like you to know is that the largest producer of wines in Central and Eastern Europe is from Moldova. The Moldovan wines are very, very good. So, what I would like to say is come to Moldova, taste the wine, and buy Moldovan wines in the local shops. Indian investors would like to invite them to come here and see the opportunities and to invest in various fields including in the agricultural industry.

Sidhant Sibal: Before I wind up, where do you see Moldova's place in the world?

Dorin Recean: Our objective is to be an equal member of the European Union and together as a large union, to be an example for the world on how to develop and how to bring prosperity to people.

Sidhant Sibal: But do you think that the war in Europe, war in Ukraine and the larger European continent could spread to your country after Ukraine it could be you and that could impact the vision you gave?

Dorin Recean: I am sure ofthat all democracies around the world will make a joint effort to help Ukraine to win the war. To elaborate again, its territories and to end the war.

Sidhant Sibal: When it comes to Ukraine, you've already supported the Ukrainian refugees, but how are you supporting Ukraine politically?

Dorin Recean:We are always advocating with our friends so that they allocate more resources for the Ukrainian military, for Ukrainian restoration and for Ukrainian people.