Franco-Moldovan Relations at the Present Stage

Despite the growing relevance of the case of Franco-Moldovan relations, little atten-tion has been paid to their study outside the context of European integration processes. This study seeks to fill this gap by identifying and summarizing the current status, specificity and con-text of French foreign policy in Moldova, the key interests of the parties towards each other, as well as the main challenges and tasks they are facing. The results of the study show that until 2021, the bilateral dynamic was rather inert. The Republic of Moldova (RM) did not rank high in the system of Paris's foreign policy priorities even after the sharp increase in the confrontation between the Russian Federation and the EU in 2014. Although the Moldovan vector of French foreign policy is now ranked alongside other post-Soviet countries, the results show that the starting position from which France's activation in RM began is very different from the inputs that for many years shaped the French geopolitical optics in other parts of the former USSR ‒ in the Caucasus and even in Central Asia. The year 2021 has become a reference point in this relationship because a political configuration favorable to France has begun to emerge in Moldova. For Chisinau, the need to gain favor with Paris is critical in the context of its stated goals of European integration. In the case of France, the motivation looks much more multilayered, but it is summarized by Paris's desire to take the Moldovan plot into circulation in order to reassemble its self-positioning as a leader in the EU.