{"id":442112,"date":"2016-05-07T09:38:30","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T09:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=442112"},"modified":"2016-05-07T09:38:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T09:38:30","slug":"vice-president-atlantic-council-damon-wilson-visit-vlad-plahotniuc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/vice-president-atlantic-council-damon-wilson-visit-vlad-plahotniuc\/","title":{"rendered":"Vice President of the Atlantic Council Damon Wilson on the visit of Vlad Plahotniuc"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

The Executive Vice President of the Atlantic Council, Damon Wilson, reacted to the questions raised around the visit of the oligarch<\/a> Vlad Plahotniuc together with Moldova’s Minister of Economy Octavian Calm\u00e2c and former deputy PM Victor Osipov last week. <\/p>\n

The Atlantic Council posted a video with Wilson explaining that the Council is no more than a non-partisan, independent policy organization:<\/p>\n

“I realized this caused some questions in the Republic of Moldova and a degree of controversy, as well. So, I just want to set this record straight and be clear. The Atlantic Council, first of all, is a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit foreign policy. (…) In fact, we are passionate about Europe’s East and support the aspiration of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia to join Europe and to be a stronger part of the Transatlantic community.
\nAlso, I want to be clear that in executing our work, we don’t pick and choose, we don’t determine leaders in the region, we don’t select or favor particular leaders in the region. Our motto is to meet with those from across the political spectrum. We meet with folks from civil society, from business, from politics, from media. All of those who play a relevant role in the future of Moldova”, stressed Wilson. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

AC’s Vice President mentioned that during the past months, he had the opportunity to meet with the Foreign Minister Andrei Galbur, former PM Iurie Leanc\u0103, former Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman and Maia Sandu. Moreover, Wilson stated that the delegations of the Atlantic Council visited Moldova and talked with Socialists, Liberal, Liberal-Democrats, Democrats, Communists and even hosted former PM Vlad Filat, now imprisoned. <\/p>\n

“We, here at the Atlantic Council, believe that the coming years are going to be relatively turbulent, relatively difficult, with a degree of anxiety and uncertainty about what the future is for Europe’s East and Moldova in particular”, emphasized Wilson. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n