"I have made an important decision that is supported by the majority of our nationals and signed the framework agreement, memorandum with the EAEU and with the Eurasian Economic Commission in the beginning of April. We have filed the request to receive the observer status. I hope that in the first half of October, when the presidential meeting of five EAEU member states takes place in Sochi, the decision to grant Moldova an observer status will be made," Dodon said at the meeting with Russian parliament's lower house speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
The potential Moldovan-EAEU integration provoked criticism from Moldova's Prime Minister Pavel Filip, who claimed that the EAEU cooperation agreement would be inconsistent with the free trade regime introduced by the 2014 Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union.
The EAEU, comprising Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, is an international organization that encourages regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services, and people within the union.
