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The Republic of Moldova can count on Romania anytime and in a great measure, President Klaus Iohannis told Moldovan Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet upon receiving him at the Cotroceni Palace on Tuesday.

"You'll further have our support. You know you can count on us a lot, anytime," Iohannis told the Moldovan Premier.

The President affirmed that Romania is "the Republic of Moldova's main promoter in the field of European affairs."

He expressed his regret that the Moldovan PM failed to get to the Romanian Parliament due to a technical malfunction of the airplane that brought him from Brussels to Bucharest.

"It's a shame that because of a technical malfunction you couldn't be to the Parliament, but — as you have already seen — the Parliament has voted enthusiastically this project that provides a quite important financial support to the Republic of Moldova and I'm very happy to find that together we have made it, here, in Romania, to go very fast through all the institutional steps, and I believe it is a quite obvious sign that we are talking a lot of about Moldova, about the support we give it, and if necessary we actually give it," said Iohannis.

The head of state specified that this is the first official visit of the Moldovan Prime Minister to the Cotroceni Palace and reminded of the informal meeting they had in New York, on the sidelines of the UN session.

The Moldovan official said he wanted to be here, in Bucharest, to thank the Romanian authorities for the support given to the Republic of Moldova.

"I really wanted to come to Bucharest (...) after Brussels. I had a good, short visit to Brussels and I hoped to arrive in Bucharest to thank the Romanian authorities, you personally, the Parliament, the Government for the support they give us constantly and especially now in a crucial moment for our country, which we will overcome with joint efforts in order to ensure continuity of reforms and changes started a while ago," said Strelet.

He underlined that Romania's support for the integration of the Republic of Moldova in the European Union was constant, continuous and very sincere in various fields.

The meeting at the Cotroceni Palace was also attended by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bogdan Aurescu.AGERPRES