Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Moldovan President Maia Sandu Before Their Meeting

PRESIDENT SANDU:  Secretary of State, dear Antony, welcome back to Chisinau.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.

PRESIDENT SANDU:  Your visit today affirms our excellent cooperation, excellent cooperation between the Republic of Moldova and the United States.  This is your second visit in the last two years.  You are among the first high-level officials who visited Moldova immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, showing solidarity to our country.

We’re very grateful here for the support that U.S. is providing to Ukraine.  This support also means keeping Moldova safe and resilient, and we’re very grateful to you and to the American people for helping us during this difficult time.  You’ve been helping us in the energy sector, for us to improve our energy security.  You’ve been helping us with economy (inaudible) sector.  You’ve been helping us with education sector.  We have many important projects between (inaudible) institutions.  So, thank you very much.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Madam President, thank you very, very much.  It’s wonderful to be back to see you, to see all of our colleagues, and just to reaffirm the strong commitment of the United States to Moldova’s sovereignty and to Moldova’s success.  And we see you as a very valuable partner in the region.  And we have been very much privileged to work together in all the areas that you suggested, including building a resilient democracy, supporting inclusive economic growth and opportunity for all Moldovans, working to help you continue to diversify your energy supply so that you’re not dependent on any one source – and of course, making sure that, fundamentally, the people of Moldova are the ones who decide their own future and their own course.  That’s what really this is all about.

I also want to express tremendous gratitude to all the Moldovan people for the incredible generosity they’ve shown to our friends in Ukraine in their time of need – taking in so many refugees, supporting them, helping them, and of course your own strong voice in standing up for Ukraine’s sovereignty, its territorial integrity, its independence.  In this time when we see democracies challenged around the world, our own solidarity as democracies means as much if not more than ever.  And President Biden really wanted me to return here, in this moment, again, to reaffirm our commitment to you and to the values that we share.

PRESIDENT SANDU:  Thank you very much.