CHISINAU. Sept 30 (Interfax) - Moldovan President Igor Dodon has said that he believes Prime Minister Maia Sandu's criticism of his speech at the UN General Assembly session regarding a Transdniestria settlement process was unfounded and he will not pay too much attention to it.
"If I hadn't displayed courage, Maia Sandu would still be in the opposition today, would be fighting the oligarch Plahotniuc by statements, and would have never reached the prime ministerial post. Therefore, I'd prefer seeing these verbal escapades simply as a way to give vent to emotions or disappointment and won't attach too much significance affecting our relations to them," Dodon said in an interview published on the online news service tribuna.md on Monday.
He said Sandu had surprised him "by using expressions that do no credit to her."
"It's more useful now to talk about our political maturity and how we can display a balanced and efficient approach in governing the country together," Dodon said.
It is the people who should assess the work done by politicians, rather than politicians themselves, he said.
In commenting on criticism by Andrei Nastase, the interior minister and leader of the Dignity and Truth Platform Party (PPDA), Dodon pointed out that Nastase is currently involved in a mayoral election campaign in Chisinau "and has said and done a lot of objectionable things lately."
"But he shouldn't forget that, after the local elections, he would have to sit down at the same working table with those toward whom he is currently behaving in such an unfriendly manner, and he might find himself alone at this table, as nobody would like to be beside him," Dodon said.
"While speaking from the UN rostrum in the past several years, Moldovan officials have represented only part of society and a certain category of voters, and they promoted issues related to geopolitics only to stage a political show and draw attention of a certain part of the international community," he said.
"I'd like to point out that even some of the current deputies from the ACUM bloc said last year that the fact that the previous government spoke in its speeches about the withdrawal of foreign troops, including at the UN, was just for show and PR, but they are contradicting themselves today," Dodon said.
"There really are many important subjects that should be promoted from such international rostrums, but at the same time, there are a lot of things that should be done with regard to international partners, without an attempt to start new conflicts with some of them but with an attempt to settle them through a dialogue and constructive approach," he said.
Sandu criticized Dodon on September 27 for his vision of ways to settle the Transdniestrian conflict.
Nastase said "Dodon's agenda is dictated by interests of other countries."
He described the president's demand that Moldova's neutral status be recognized internationally as "strange."