The meeting took place within an official visit to Georgia by Prime Minister Vlad Filat on 9-11 July. The Moldovan premier was met with military honours. Afterwards, the two prime minister had a face-to-face meeting, followed by a plenary meeting of the two cabinets' official delegations. Vlad Filat was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and European Integration Minister Iurie Leanca, Health Minister Andrei Usatii, Transports and Roads Infrastructure Minister Anatol Salaru, Deputy Information Technologies and Communications Minister Dorin Recean.

At the meeting with his Georgian counterpart, Vlad Filat reiterated his congratulations on the appointment of Vano Merabishvili as prime minister of Georgia, and wished him success and new achievements in his responsible work.

"We have many examples of the century-old relations between our nations, which makes us being closer," Vlad Filat said. The Moldovan prime minister praised the reforms implemented by the Georgian authorities, stressing that the latter will record outstanding progress in continuation as well. At the same time, Filat spoke out in favour of a more intense cooperation between Moldova and Georgia, in order to take over this country's experience and best practices in the promotion of the reforms and strengthening the state based on the rule of law.

The Moldovan prime minister highlighted the importance to exchange experience in the European integration sector, especially to cooperate within the Eastern Partnership. He showed interest in the taking over of the Georgian authorities' experience and practice in the enforcement of the concept of the Interior Ministry's (MAI) reformation.

For his part, Vano Merabishvili underlined the importance of the official visit to Georgia by the Moldovan government's delegation. Merabishvili said this is the first visit of a foreign delegation to Georgia received in his tenure of prime minister, noting that he had acted as Georgian interior minister so far. The prime minister of Georgia emphasized the importance to consolidate the political dialogue at diverse levels, in order to further develop the Moldovan-Georgian bilateral relations.

The prime ministers tackled the entire spectrum of problems on the agenda of the bilateral ties, laying stress on opportunity to boost the trade relations between the two countries. The prime ministers appreciated the potential of the two states, agreed to turn to account this potential in continuation via implementing concrete projects in the economic, energy, agriculture, transport and tourism areas.

An important role to this end will be played by the Moldovan-Georgian inter-governmental commission for economic cooperation. Vlad Filat and Vano Merabishvili directed that the procedures of setting up the commission should be completed as soon as possible and the first meeting of this commission be organized in the near future.

The sides stressed the significance to more actively promote people-to-people contacts, especially by extending cultural exchanges, cooperation in the education, youth and sports sectors. In this context, the officials made a proposal to consider possibilities to open direct air flights Chisinau-Tbilisi.

The two prime ministers visited a free economic zone of the Rustavi city nearby the Georgian capital, where the authorities of Georgia made a comprehensive presentation of the way this zone works.

Subsequently, the two prime ministers signed the agreement between the Moldovan and Georgian governments on visa free movement of the citizens. A memorandum of understanding in the health and medical sciences sector was signed in the presence of Vlad Filat and Vano Merabishvili. Moldovan Health Minister Andrei Usatii and Georgian Labour, Health and Social Protection Minister Zurab Tchyaberishvili signed the document.

Another two agreements between the Moldovan and Georgian governments - on international road traffic and on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in the customs sector - are to be signed within this visit.

It is worth mentioning that the bilateral trade has increased over the last years: the bilateral commerce has gone up by 160 per cent starting from 2009 till 2011, and the trend of increase is maintained in 2012 as well. Thus, in the first four months of 2012, the foreign trade between Moldova and Georgia stood at 6.28 million dollars, - up by 92.05 per cent against the same period last year. On the concerned period, the export of goods amounted to 5.21 million dollars, increasing by 71.95 per cent against the same period of the year before. The import of wares between Moldova and Georgia was 1.08 million dollars in first four months of 2012, and recorded a 350-per cent increase against the same period of 2011.

Also today, Vlad Filat laid a wreath of flowers to pay homage to those who died for Georgia's territorial integrity.