BUCHAREST, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Romania wanted to increase its investment in the Republic of Moldova and welcome the progress made in connection with the energy connectivity in the natural gas, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Tuesday while visiting Moldova.

The Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline reconfirms Romania's role as Moldova's main partner, Dancila told her Moldovan counterpart Pavel Filip at the end of their meeting.

The operation of the pipeline, Dancila said, is "a priority not only for Bucharest and Chisinau, as it is a major project with regional relevance on the agenda of the European Union, within the framework of the Eastern dimension policy".

Moldova will receive loan of 41 million euros (50 million U.S. dollars) from the EIB for the construction of a 120-km pipeline connecting Chisinau to the Romanian gas network via Ungheni (Moldova)-Iasi (Romania) interconnection that was completed in late 2014.

Romania is the Moldova's top partner "not just in terms of trade exchanges, but also of investments", said Moldovan Prime Minister Filip for his part.

"Last year, we reached 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in trade exchanges with Romania ... companies running on Romanian capital are the most numerous when we talk of foreign capital in Moldova," he said.

The visit in Moldova is the first one Dancila made to a foreign country as a prime minister. The visit was aimed at "reviewing both the ongoing projects and identifying new initiatives aimed at advancing bilateral cooperation, as well as the European agenda", Dancila said.