Moldova

Some Transnistrian exporters are taking advantage of the preferential trade system by registering with the central business registry of Moldova and paying taxes to Chisinau.

A new border crossing point was opened on Friday, in Caras-Severin County, on the border with Serbia, authorities estimating that the waiting time for border check will be considerably shortened, because it will take over part of the flow of people who have so far crossed the border between the two states, the Interior Ministry (MAI) announced on Friday.

The speed with which Chicu was installed, two days after Sandu lost a confidence vote and not long after the Socialists won control of the capital, has led some observers to accuse the Socialists of a premeditated plan. Sandu said the Socialists were running scared of her anti-corruption agenda.

The Socialists, together with the Democratic Party whose government they helped topple in June, won a no-confidence vote in the Sandu administration on November 12, unleashing another political crisis in Moldova.

Moldova's Prime Minister-designate Ion Chicu was approved by the country's parliament on Thursday, along with his proposed list of ministers who will form the new cabinet following the collapse of the former government led by pro-Western PM Maja Sandu just days prior.

Having formed a list of proposed ministers overnight, Chicu secured the support of 62 out of 101 deputies.

Moldova has for years gone slow on allowing China to undertake big infrastructure projects in the country - but with a presidential trip to Beijing now penciled in, that may be about to change.

President Klaus Iohannis stated, on Tuesday, that the demarche initiated by the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) to remove the Maia Sandu Government, in an "essential" moment for Justice reform, goes against the medium and long-term interests of the neighboring country and its citizens.

The new mayor of the Moldovan capital is widely seen as Russia's most promising political advocate in the country, after President Igor Dodon.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, had a meeting on Friday with the US Ambassador to Bucharest Hans Klemm, and with Terri Sewell, a member of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, elected in Alabama, on which occasion they discussed about the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States and the new Romanian Government's firm commitment to continue to earmark

Moldova's coalition government was in jeopardy on Friday after the Socialist Party gave the pro-EU Prime Minister Maia Sandu a deadline to abandon her plan to take personal responsibility for naming the new General Prosecutor - after a commission entrusted with the job was axed.