(Benny Benton / staff)

Top: Vladimir Voronin, president of the Republic of Moldova (front right), arrives at Centennial Campus amid heavy security. Bottom: exchange students Rodica Cusnir (left) and Elena Rusu, both residents of Moldova, get a rare opportunity to meet and speak with their president.

NC State welcomed a foreign head-of-state to campus today (Dec. 19) when Vladimir Voronin, president of the Republic of Moldova, and other delegates from that European country met with campus representatives as part of a visit to the state.

Voronin and the Moldovans first met with officials from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences to discuss an on-going faculty exchange program between NC State and the State Agricultural University of Moldova (SAUM). The two groups also discussed a new grant proposal under which NC State would work with SAUM's new Post-Harvest Technology Institute, which examines such issues as disease control, improving storage equipment, extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables, instructing students on international export requirements, and developing markets.

Part of the delegation later visited Centennial Campus to discuss university, corporate and government research and development facilities, then shared lunch with various state government and NC State officials, including Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.

Voronin has been president of Moldova since April of 2001. His country is located northeast of Romania and encompasses more than 33,000 square kilometers, or approximately the size of Maryland.

NC State's relationship with Moldova is part of a broad relationship between the country and the state of North Carolina that has been fostered through a federal program called Partnership for Peace. Managed by the North Carolina National Guard, the program matches American states with newly-independent nations, mostly former Soviet bloc countries or former Soviet republics, and fosters cooperation and aid in the areas of education, health care and other humanitarian disciplines, culture, agriculture and military issues. Partnership for Peace states now work with 22 countries worldwide.

Posted December 19, 2002

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