Weimar Triangle aims to increase investment into Moldova

The ‘Weimar Triangle’ of Germany, France, and Poland is looking to activate joint investment to prop up Moldova’s frail public finances amid increasing Russian pressure on the EU candidate country, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday (9 April).

“We want to work together with our partners in the Weimar Triangle to further expand [Moldova’s] security in every respect, but especially in economic terms, within the framework of the Weimar Triangle,” Baerbock told reporters after a meeting with her Moldovan counterpart, Mihai Popsoi, in Berlin.

With Moldova edging closer to the formal start of official EU accession talks, it is struggling with Russian interference while its economy – already among the poorest in Europe – has been under pressure since the start of the war in Ukraine.

European support has previously been provided bilaterally and through the multilateral Moldova Support Platform.

However, there are plans to reinforce the Weimar Triangle forum as a future vehicle for joint European action by channelling support for Moldova through the format, Baerbock said.

Such future support would need to go beyond aid and partners would need to help the country build economic strength through business investment, she said.

“Aid alone cannot counter [Russia’s] hybrid warfare, but economic strength must come from the country itself. This means that investment is key,” Baerbock said.

The three key EU members have recently started working to reinforce their collaboration inside the Weimar format, with a focus on defence and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The dialogue forum had been mostly dormant during the reign of the nationalist conservative PiS party in Poland but received a boost with the election of the pro-European coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk last October.

At the format’s meeting in Berlin in March, the leaders agreed on joint priorities for propping up Ukraine, including boosting the country’s economy through investment in its defence industry.

For Moldova, EU support, as well as an eventual accession to the bloc, would offer it the “opportunity for a better future for our fellow countrymen,” Moldova’s Popsoi said.

The country’s economic stability “has suffered immensely through the consequences of the war”, he added, pointing to Moldova’s long-standing dependence on Russian energy supplies.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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