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Minister says Moldova’s govt not considering membership of Customs Union

"We haven’t received any invitations from there for the time being and haven’t thought it over so far", Moldovan Foreign Minister said

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Itar-Tass) – Moldova’s government is not considering a possibility of joining the CIS Customs Union that embraces Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan at the moment, the visiting Moldovan Foreign Minister, Iurie Leanca told Itar-Tass here Monday.

While pursuing a course at integration in the European organizations, the incumbent Moldovan government has mapped out clearly “the understanding of our national interests” in the post-Soviet space, Leanca said.

“We’re working tightly enough in the format of the CIS both on the political and economic plane,” he said, adding that Moldova had signed an agreement on a free trade zone in the framework of the Commonwealth at the last session of the Council of Prime Ministers in St Petersburg.

“As for the Customs Union, we haven’t received any invitations from there for the time being and haven’t thought it over so far,” Leanca said.

Nor did the Moldovan government have any internal discussions of the issue.

“We didn’t have discussions of this kind and we proceed from the assumption we’re quite satisfied right now with the CIS free trade zone, as well as with a free trade zone, the consultations on which we’re about to begin with the EU,” Leanca said.

“To have these free trade zones on your left and on your right is the best possible thing of all – anyway it perfectly suits Moldova’s interests at present,” he said.

In Washington, Iurie Leanca is due to have talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a number of meetings at the U.S. Congress.