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Louis O'Neill
Louis O'Neill(The company name is only visible to registered members)
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By Louis O’Neill
Kyiv Post, August 27, 2009
http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/op_ed/47620 In his poem “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost concludes regretfully that “good fences make good neighbors.” If that is the case, then Moldova’s new government has some major fence-mending to do with its next-door nations, Romania and Ukraine. Relations with them have deteriorated to a critical point, although for very different reasons.
The Moldovan Communists have employed a startling and self-defeating belligerence towards their neighbors to the west. The constant drumbeat of unsubstantiated accusations and invective against Bucharest, particularly during the two recent election campaigns, has alienated voters and vexed officials in Romania and the European Union. The forced construct of an external enemy across the Prut allegedly out to “destroy Moldovan sovereignty” fell flat with an electorate looking for European integration and concrete improvements in their lives. The visa-war that ensued simply made Moldova look silly, which in its current impoverished and chaotic state is the last thing the country needs.
President Voronin’s inherent anti-Romanian bias – he is among the few outside of Transnistria and Moscow’s propaganda bureaus who adhere to the existence of the “Moldovan” language – has not served his country’s long-term interests well. Supporters might spin his aggressive approach as an attempt to re-assure Tiraspol, and more importantly Moscow, that there would be no danger of Moldovan re-unification with Romania on Voronin’s extended watch. But this apologia doesn’t fly.
First of all, reunification at the hands of the “unionists” (as the Communists and some others called the reform candidates) or anyone else is far from realistic; it is consistently supported by less than 10% of the Moldovan population. Second, there has not been, unfortunately, any serious progress on Transnistrian settlement for years, regardless of whether Chisinau has been sensitive to Tiraspol’s views or ignored them. And third, every draft settlement document ever produced contains an escape clause for Transnistria to go its own way should Moldova lose its sovereignty.
Rather, Voronin’s Romania-bashing was about getting votes and currying favor with Moscow. And from the latter quarter the incumbents did extract some dividends, including Foreign Minister Lavrov’s first visit to Chisinau just before the April elections, the Kremlin’s strong political support during and after the rioting, and the pre-electoral promise of a $500 million loan, whose execution is still pending. But as a campaign strategy with Moldova’s evolving electorate, it backfired. Now the mess in Moldovan-Romanian relations needs to be cleaned up, and credibility with cautious Brussels bureaucrats reestablished.
Thus, the new coalition government should immediately follow through on its promise to eliminate the visa requirement that the Communists slapped on Romanians in April. This has been a pointless impediment to everything that European integration stands for and little progress with Brussels will be possible while it stands. Equally unhelpful was Moldova’s expulsion of the Romanian Ambassador after the post-election violence. Romania should send, and Chisinau should welcome, a new Ambassador as soon as possible to return relations to a normal track.
The Foreign Ministry in Chisinau has been lamenting for years the lack of progress on signing border and political treaties with Romania. To get this done, both sides need to let go of Soviet era creations that are holding them back. Voronin’s government has insisted that the treaties be executed in two languages, “Romanian” and “Moldovan.” This has been a deal-killer for Bucharest, which along with most everyone else, sees the language as one. Moldova’s new government should drop this curious demand. After all, the documents could just as easily be signed without reference to their language.
For their part, the Romanians have perseverated on signing the treaties due to a stated reluctance to formalize bi-laterally the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty. In their view it consolidated the secret protocols of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop deal and subsequent duress-driven 1940 Romanian-Soviet Agreement that gave Basarabia to the USSR. This is an anachronistic excuse because the whole world, at least formally, has long recognized Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in its post-Soviet borders. The Nazi-Soviet pact should not be allowed to claw its way forward in time to prevent implementation of these treaties.
In a sign of progress, Romanian Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu last week indicated that Bucharest may be ready to abandon its historical bogeyman and sign the treaties, along with a third accord on visa-free travel for Moldovans living near the border. The sides should get this done as soon as possible and use the momentum to further improve ties. Signing the border treaty would also defang one of Transnistria’s excuses for avoiding settlement negotiations far more effectively than did the Communists’ hyperbolic anti-Romanian show.
Finally, Romania has been through the EU accession process and has experience with transforming itself in consonance with the acquis communautaire, the total body of EU law thus far accumulated. For all its significant growing pains, Romania is ahead of Moldova in rule-of-law development and anti-corruption measures and could be a helpful guide for Moldova’s accelerated EU integration, if Chisinau lets it.
While high and unhelpful drama have characterized Moldova’s relations with Romania, those with Ukraine have been fraught with a malignant neglect. Indeed, for some years the ruling Communists have seemed to pretend that their giant neighbor – which completely encases rebel Transnistria and buffers Moldova from Russia by some 600 kilometers – simply didn’t exist. High-level visits almost never took place, Ukrainian diplomats lamented the lack of responsiveness by their Moldovan counterparts on key issues, and the literal building of fences – the demarcation and registration of the official borders between the two countries – has moved ahead at a snail’s pace. This kind of laxity with what could and should be an enormous political and economic ally is at best diplomatic nonfeasance.
Moldova’s neglect of its relationship with Ukraine is perhaps best illustrated by the initial inclusion of Moldovan citizens in Kiev’s new rules requiring visitors from 82 countries, mostly in Central Asia, Africa and Asia, to prove substantial financial resources before being allowed into Ukraine. While Prime Minister Tymoshenko has promised to remove Moldova from the list at the next cabinet meeting, a neighboring country with active and healthy relations would not have been so slighted in the first place. This snub is particularly salient given Ukraine’s own economic difficulties; rather than driving Moldovan vacationers to Turkey, it should be trying to entice them.
There is also much room for improvement in the physical links between Moldova and Ukraine. For example, it is hard to believe that there are no direct air flights between Chisinau and Kiev, forcing businessmen and travelers to either drive five hours and face harassment at the Transnistrian boundary or fly through distant third cities. For sure there is enough demand to support several direct flights per week between these nations’ capitals. The new Moldovan government should get to the bottom of any bureaucratic or nepotistic limitations on its side that might have created this strange and inefficient situation. To be successful, Moldova must be more deeply integrated with its neighbors and this is an easy first step.
A bright spot in bi-lateral relations has been the recent extension of the European Union’s Border Assistance Mission for another two years. Ukraine might consider allowing co-location of Moldovan customs agents on its territory. This would help Chisinau reassert itself over its internationally recognized borders while at the same time offering a tremendous boon to Transnistrian businesses who are suffering due to the world economic crisis. Under co-location, Transnistrian exporters would save significant transport costs and time by no longer having to undergo customs inspection on the right bank of the Nistru. The good cooperation that Ukrainian and Moldovan border professionals have developed over the years of EUBAM should also be extended to other government agencies and departments.
In its grand formative declaration, Moldova’s four-party Alliance for European Integration outlined in broad terms its desire for the “reestablishment and consolidation of good neighborly relations” with Romania and Ukraine. These nice words need to be put into action. On the 70th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, it is time for Moldova to join a modern world characterized by integration, communication and open borders, not self-isolation, political antagonism and intrigue.
The new Moldovan government will have a real chance to create a rule-based system that allows its citizens to reach their full potential. An important part of that is getting its diplomacy right – not just with neighbors Romania and Ukraine, but with Brussels, Moscow and other as well. In so doing, Moldova’s leaders might keep in mind Frost’s deeper recommendation:
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down…
Louis O’Neill was OSCE Ambassador and Head of Mission from 2006 to 2008.
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