CHISINAU, July 31. /TASS/. Members of Moldova’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity on Monday voted to denounce two more CIS agreements: one on supporting small businesses and another on a coordinated policy in the area of standardization, metrology and certification.

"The CIS agreements were denounced in the second reading by 55 votes," parliament speaker Igor Grosu said. Lawmakers from the opposition bloc of communists and socialists did not take part in the voting as they had walked out in protest.

"Both agreements are outdated. Moldova’s system of standardization, metrology, accreditation and compliance verification, as well as of market oversight differs considerably from the systems in other CIS countries. And the agreement on support for and development of small businesses in CIS countries is not with the times," Minister of Economic Development Dumitru Alaiba said while presenting the government’s proposal.

Earlier, the ruling party’s lawmakers denounced the Convention on the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and terminated a range of CIS agreements.

Moldova’s attitude to the CIS began to change in 2020 when Maia Sandu became president of the country. Since then, she has not attended any of the CIS’ summits. The anti-CIS rhetoric has only increased this year, with Foreign Minister Nicolae Popescu announcing the denunciation of a number of CIS agreements. However, Moldovan Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization Dumitru Alaiba said that the country should keep in force those agreements which are useful for the country’s economy. Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea shared this opinion, saying that withdrawing from the CIS would be a blow to the country’s main industry.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has slammed Chisinau’s policy as janus-faced. She noted that while declaring their plans to withdraw from the CIS the Moldovan authorities are in no hurry to give up the socio-economic advantages they receive from being members of the CIS.