Over 60 Marshall Center alumni and other Moldovan officials attended the Moldovan George C. Marshall Association’s 8th Annual Roundtable on 20 November 2012.  This year’s event focused on Lessons Learned from Partner Nations in Eastern Europe about Euroatlantic Integration.  The event was held at the Museum of Military History and Culture in Chisinau.  Among the key attendees at the event was Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Popov, who offered effusive praise for the Marshall Center and the Moldovan alumni association during his 15-minute opening remarks.  The two keynote speakers were Dr. Matthew Rhodes of the Marshall Center (speaking on the lessons learned from the Adriatic Charter experience of Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia) and Ambassador-at-Large Juris Poikans of Latvia (head of the Latvian MFA Planning Group) who spoke on Latvia’s lessons learned from European integration. 

Other alumni leaders who spoke at the event were Ms. Lidra Zegali, Council of Ministers of Albania, Dr. Stojan Slaveski, a professor and dean at the European University of Macedonia, and Dr. Lucian Biro, Director of the Romanian National Commission for Nuclear Safety, who spoke on energy harmonization in the EU.  Additionally, the respective leaders of the Macedonian and Albanian Alumni Associations (Dr. Slaveski and Ms. Zegali, respectively) signed cooperation agreements with the Moldovan Association. The Moldovan Association also used the occasion to distribute its latest journal – this year dedicated to the Transnistria conflict. We are extremely grateful to the Moldovan Association team, in particular, its chairman, Col. (Reserve) Andrei Covrig, who served as the overall moderator of the event.