ForMin Aurescu asks Moldovan counterpart to "settle situation" of expelled Romanian citizen

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu discussed with his Moldovan counterpart Natalia Gherman the denial of access to the Republic of Moldova for Romanian citizen George Simion. On the sidelines of the Visegrad Group meeting in Bratislava, Aurescu asked Gherman "to communicate the clarifications previously requested by the Romanian part and to settle the situation" of Simion, the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) informed AGERPRES on Friday.

Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

"The Romanian Embassy in Chisinau found out from public sources, in the afternoon of May 13, about the apprehension by representatives of the Bureau for Migration and Asylum of the Republic of Moldova of Romanian citizen George Simion. The diplomatic mission immediately contacted the relevant authorities of the Republic of Moldova ? the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bureau for Migration and Asylum ? and asked for clarifications. A formal request to this effect was addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova," MAE's document reads.

According to the Moldovan Ministry of Interior, the authorities are entitled to declare foreign citizens undesirable if they endanger national security; it thus explained in a release to Unimedia.md the reason for expelling on Wednesday Simion, the leader of the Action 2012 platform for the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania.

Simion was apprehended by agents of the Moldovan Information and Security Service (SIS) and expelled from the country shortly afterwards, with a five-year ban from entering the Republic of Moldova.AGERPRES