Broader consular assistance through GUAM

The Government of Moldova approved a bill to ratify the GUAM convention on the provision of mutual consular assistance that was signed at the summit of GUAM heads of state in Yalta in 2001. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca said Wednesday that the convention defines the areas of cooperation between the parties, especially the exchange of information about cases of death, detaining and arrest of people, conditions for providing support to the persons involved in accidents. “Currently, Moldova cannot open embassies or consulates in all the countries, but would offer its citizens the possibility of receiving consular assistance from the other GUAM member states. Ukraine, for example, has the largest number of embassies and consulates among the GUAM states - 77 embassies and 32 general consulates abroad. Some of these are situated in cities where there are many Moldovans, but where Moldova does not have representative offices, such as San Francisco, Toronto, Ottawa, Barcelona, Vladivostok, Rostov-on-Don, Dubai and others,” Leanca said. He also said the ratified convention will help combat illegal migration and attempts to use forged passports and visas as the parties will exchange information about such cases. Leanca added 26 states, including GUAM members, expressed readiness to implement the given convention so far. The GUAM includes Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova.