Popsoi: Upon Leaving the CIS, Moldova Will Have to Pay Off a Debt of €100,000

Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi stated that the Republic of Moldova will definitively withdraw from the CIS by the end of this year, but as part of this process, the country will have to repay a debt of approximately €100,000. “If we want to comply with international law and be at ease in terms of our obligations, this debt should probably be repaid, although it must be acknowledged that in recent years we have not received any benefits from participating in the CIS for the contributions we have paid,” he said on TVR Moldova’s Punctul pe Azi program. According to him, all government procedures will be completed in the coming weeks, after which the draft denunciation will be submitted to parliament for discussion and voting. The documents will then be promulgated by the president, published in the Official Monitor and sent to the CIS Executive Committee. From the perspective of international law, following official notification, there will be a period of approximately six months, after which the Republic of Moldova will lose its legal status as the CIS member state. “This is an epochal decision,” emphasized Mihai Popsoi, calling the CIS a “suitcase without a handle” that no longer brings any real benefit to the country. The Foreign Minister noted that citizens had clearly expressed their support for European integration, and that membership in structures that did not correspond to national interests should be terminated. At the same time, Popsoi assured that leaving the CIS would not affect citizens’ freedom of movement or existing trade relations. He explained that many agreements that are often discussed in public, including free movement and economic cooperation, have long been in force on the basis of bilateral agreements rather than within the framework of the CIS. “The Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and other states denounced key CIS agreements many years ago. In practice, travel and trade are carried out on the basis of bilateral agreements, which remain in force,” the minister noted. The Moldovan authorities announced their intention to leave the CIS back in December 2023. Georgia (in 2008) and Ukraine (in 2018) had previously left the Commonwealth.