Moldovan President Igor Dodon said on Tuesday he was not going to cancel the association agreement with the European Union, but did not believe that the republic would join the bloc in the future.

"We will not cancel the agreement with Europe, but we never said that we would be members of the EU. I never said that, I believe that we should follow our national interests," Axar.az reports that Dodon said while shown on Accent tv.

According to the president, the current association agreement should be used for the good of the country, including to establish infrastructure and trade.

"The Europeans themselves say that they are not ready to expand, and why should we hurry? Let's deal with our own issues," he stressed.

Relations between Moscow and Chisinau deteriorated in summer 2015, when the Moldovan parliament ratified the association agreement with the EU, signed by the government in Brussels. Under the agreement, Moldova should fully open its market for European goods. Russia, fearing that CIS countries and members of the Eurasian Economic Union will re-export goods from the European Union through Moldova, has introduced a temporary ban on the import of certain types of Moldovan products.