The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova has expelled two Romanian diplomats on Wednesday, December 12, 2007.

On Dec. 12, the Romanian ambassador to Moldova Filip Teodorescu has been summoned to the Moldovan MFA to receive a verbal note in which it was stated that the two Romanian diplomats are declared persona non grata being ordered to leave the country within 24 hours. According to a press communiqué of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, Teodorescu refused the take the note in protest of the “surprising, unexpected and unjustified gesture” of Moldova.

Also today, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry has recalled its ambassador to Romania Lidia Gutu "for consultations".

These are unprecedented diplomatic moves of Moldova towards its western neighbor Romania, with which it shares common language and history.

Lately, the official Chisinau accuses the government of Romania of “undermining Moldova’s independence”. One of the main accusations is that Romania does not recognize the Moldovan language as distinctive of the Romanian language.

The current Moldovan authorities continue the policies on the language issue initiated by the Russian Empire and then by the Soviet Union. Russia in the 19th century and the Soviet Union in the 20th century called the Romanian language spoken in Moldova ‘‘Moldavian.’’ The roots of the issue are political, and they date back to the beginnings of the process of Russification, started after the incorporation of the eastern half of historic Moldova by czarist Russia in 1812.

In fact, national and international researchers and linguists have repeatedly indicated that the Moldovan language does not exist and the language spoken in the Republic of Moldova is a dialect of the Romanian language, a dialect also spoken in Romania’s Eastern province – Moldova (the western half of the ancient Principality of Moldova, which united with Wallachia to form the United Principalities in 1959, later transformed into the state of Romania).

Another Chisinau’s accusation towards Romania is that Romania provides “in mass” citizenship to Moldova’s population, which also does not stand the reality check. Civil society experts from Moldova accuses Romania of doing just the opposite – slowing the granting of citizenship to Moldovans.

For the Moldovan current leadership, composed mostly by the Communist Party members and their sympathizers, the language and identity issues are very sensitive. It seems they are ready to refuse the support of Romania in Moldova’s European Union integration process, jeopardizing the EU integration policy altogether. If someone in the Moldovan government would look at the EU enlargement process, they should not miss the fact that a candidate state would have better chances for admission when it has good relations with its neighbors, not vice-versa. Hungary, Poland, Slovakia are just a few examples in this regard.

Hopefully, these are uncalculated diplomatic mistakes of Chisinau, not coordinated policies of Moscow that intends to keep Moldova as far as possible from NATO and EU, including from Romania.

Whatever the reasons, Romania has to behave as a mature player in international relations, being a NATO and EU member, and has to avoid provocations and further escalation of tension.

In its communiqué the Romanian foreign ministry stated that it will react to Moldova’s last diplomatic “unfriendly” moves (of expelling the two Romanian diplomats) in a “European manner, transparently and responsibly, in the interest of the people of the two states”. It also states that Romania will continue to “promote the European destiny” policy towards the population of the Republic of Moldova. It remains to be seen how the two countries will be able to overcome their bilateral disagreements.

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