The foreign relations of Romania are conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Romania is a member of the European Union and NATO.
Moldovan, archaically spelled Moldavian, is one of the two local names for the Romanian language in Moldova. Moldovan was declared the official language of Moldova in Article 13 of the constitution adopted in 1994, while the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Moldova used the name Romanian. In 2003, the Moldovan parliament adopted a law defining Moldovan and Romanian as glottonyms for the same language. In 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova interpreted that Article 13 of the constitution is superseded by the Declaration of Independence, thus giving official status to the name Romanian. The breakaway region of Transnistria continues to recognize Moldovan as one of its official languages, alongside Russian and Ukrainian. Ukraine also continues to make a distinction between Moldovan and Romanian, with one village declaring its language to be Romanian and another declaring it to be Moldovan, though Ukrainian officials have announced an intention to remove the legal status of Moldovan. On 16 March 2023, the Moldovan Parliament approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution. On 22 March, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, promulgated the law.
Our Party, previously known as the Republican People's Party, is a populist political party in Moldova. Founded in 1999 as the Peasants' Christian Democratic Party of Moldova (Partidul Țărănesc Creștin Democrat din Moldova, it promotes Russophilia, social conservatism, and soft Euroscepticism. Its party chairman is Renato Usatîi, while other key figures include Dumitru Ciubașenco and Ilian Cașu.
Iași International Airport is an international airport located in Iași, Romania, 8 km (5 mi) east of the city centre. One of the oldest accredited airports in Romania and the most important in the historical region of Moldavia, Iași Airport is the third-busiest airport in Romania in terms of passenger traffic.
The unification of Moldova and Romania is a popular concept in the two countries that began during the Revolutions of 1989. The Romanian Revolution in 1989 and the independence of Moldova in 1991 further contributed to the development of a movement for the unification of the two Romanian-speaking countries. The question of reunification is recurrent in the public sphere of the two countries, often as a speculation, both as a goal and a danger. Though historically Romanian support for unification was high, a March 2022 survey following the Russian invasion of Ukraine indicated that only 11% of Romania's population supports an immediate union, while over 42% think it is not the right moment.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Romania is one of the eighteen ministries of the Government of Romania.
The Trupele de Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie force of the Republic of Moldova, under the administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova. The Moldovan Carabinieri are to ensure, together with the police or independently, public order, protection of rights and freedoms of citizens, owners' properties and prevention of violations of the law. The structure of the agency is based on the Italian Carabinieri, where it gets its name.
The official state language of Moldova is Romanian, which is the native language of 78.6% of the population ; it is also spoken as a primary language by other ethnic minorities. Gagauz, Russian, and Ukrainian languages are granted official regional status in Gagauzia and/or Transnistria.
Moldova–Russia relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation, two Eastern European, post-Soviet, ex-communist countries. Russian support for the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) and a substantial Russian military presence therein strained Moldovan relations with Russia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the fourteen ministries of the Government of Moldova.
The Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization is one of the fourteen ministries of the Government of Moldova.
The accession of Moldova to the European Union (EU) is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU.
Nicolae "Nicu" Popescu is a Moldovan author and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova from 6 August 2021 until 26 January 2024 in the Gavrilita and then Recean cabinets. He was also Moldova's Foreign Minister from 11 June - 14 November 2019 in the Sandu Cabinet. Until his appointment, he was the director of the Wider Europe programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations and visiting professor at Sciences Po-Paris.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Moldova was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have reached the Republic of Moldova on 7 March 2020, when a Moldovan woman who returned from Italy tested positive for the novel coronavirus. As the number of infected people started to rise during the next days, the Parliament declared a state of emergency on 17 March 2020 for the entire territory of the Republic of Moldova for a period of 60 days.
The Guard Battalion of the Moldovan National Army is a unit in the Moldovan Ground Forces. It is based in the capital of Chișinău, specifically at Military Camp 142. The battalion was formed on October 16, 1992. It shares the same birthday as the Independent Engineer Battalion "Codru" and the Communications and Informatics Center.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Moldova in autumn 2024.
On 18 September 2022, protests in Moldova began in the capital city of Chișinău, demanding the resignation of the country's pro-Western government, amid an energy crisis causing rising natural gas prices and inflation, caused in part by the war in Ukraine.
Starting in late 2022, Moldova suffered an energy crisis, the worst since its independence. Hugely influenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, caused when Russia's Gazprom reduced supplies.
On 15 November 2022, a missile struck the territory of Poland at the village of Przewodów near the border with Ukraine, killing two people. The incident occurred during an attack on Ukrainian cities and energy facilities by Russia. It was the first incident of a missile fired from Ukrainian army landing and exploding within NATO territory during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initially Ukraine accused Russia of striking Poland, while United States claimed that the missile was likely to have been an air defence missile fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile. This was later confirmed in September 2023 by the Polish Prosecutor's Office, which stated that the explosion was caused by an out of control air-defence missile S-300.
Events from the year 2023 in Moldova.
