WELCOME SPEECH

Once again, I am pleased to welcome you to our special meeting. It is a meeting that enjoys a
presence and I refer to English external guests.

We are indeed going through a period in which events take place and actions are taking place
with profound meanings for the construction of the European project and for Romania equally.
This is a crucial time, given both the many challenges ahead and the major changes expected in
all the Brussels institutions. We meet at the meeting ... in a very different regional and
international security context. Not just to 2016, but to previous years. Unfortunately in the
negative. In this case, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is consistently pursuing actions to
strengthen the profile of the Republic of Moldova in the European and Euro-Atlantic family.
Strengthen strategic partnerships. First, the one with the United States, but also the other
strategic partner countries, with European or non-European countries, as well as special
cooperation partnerships with different states. Obviously, we said, we know it, we act. The EU
must remain ambitious in the development of the Eastern Dimension of the Neighborhood
Policy.

I will refer a little later to this issue, including in relation to Georgia and Ukraine. Another
area of special interest is the economic evolutions. In the context of an economic and financial
crisis that has not yet been completely overcome, as well as the possibility of identifying new
opportunities for cooperation and investment in a wider global plan. I'll start with the strategic
partnership in the United States. As I said the bilateral relationship with the US is and will
remain the keystone of our foreign policy.

Risks, challenges, stakes are very high, we live in a complicated, complicated international
context, so you will have to give, measure our value. Not alone, but with the partners we have
worked with and with whom we want to continue to cooperate very well. Thank you very much.
We will continue tomorrow and the day after two very, extremely rich days, with a very rich
agenda, with interesting themes, with guests from abroad, but also from the administrative,
diplomatic, and domestic political landscape. And I'm convinced there will be a meeting that will
produce results.

Thank you for your attention.

Armas Maria