Moldova parliament backs first-step withdrawal from CIS
Moldova’s parliament voted in the first reading to leave the CIS. (Photo: Mihai Popșoi via Facebook)
Moldova’s Parliament approved in the first reading a bill to denounce the agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, Moldpres reported on March 21.
Moldova’s Foreign Ministry initiated the denunciation, arguing that the CIS no longer upholds its founding values and basic principles, including member states’ recognition of and mutual respect for territorial integrity and the inviolability of existing borders.
Speaking in parliament, Foreign Minister Mihai Popșoi said Russia had violated the principles on which the CIS was founded by waging war against Ukraine, committing acts of aggression against Georgia, and illegally stationing troops on Moldovan territory. He said withdrawing from the CIS founding agreement was also a natural and inevitable step on Moldova’s path toward European Union membership.
“Today we stand at a crossroads, and this decision can no longer be postponed,” Popșoi said. “For more than three decades, we have carried a heavy burden, an invisible chain that kept us tied to a past that no longer belongs to us.” He described the CIS as an organization born from the ashes of a fallen empire and later turned into a tool for preserving Moscow’s influence over its neighbors.
After the denunciation takes effect, Moldova’s state budget is expected to save about 3.1 million lei annually, the amount it currently contributes to the CIS budget. Relations with CIS member states will continue on bilateral and multilateral platforms, while Moldova will remain a party to several CIS agreements, primarily in the trade, economic, and social spheres.
Over the past two years, Moldova has launched a broad review of agreements signed within the CIS framework. Of 283 CIS agreements, 71 have already been denounced, while about 60 more are still under review. The draft laws will next go to a second reading in parliament.
Moldova’s government approved the denunciation of the CIS founding documents on March 11, formally launching the procedure for the country’s final withdrawal from the organization’s statutory bodies.
The CIS was established in 1991 after several Soviet republics signed the Belavezha Accords, declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and creating the new grouping in its place. Ukraine ended its participation in CIS statutory bodies in 2018, though it was never a full member because it did not ratify the CIS charter.
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