The President of Moldova announced the discussion around joining the “major alliance”

There is a serious discussion in Moldova about the country’s ability to defend itself and the possibility of joining a “larger alliance,” said President Maia Sandu. So she answered to the question of the newspaper Politico about the prospects for the republic’s membership in NATO.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict, according to the newspaper, has caused in Moldova a “reassessment of values” regarding the need to abandon its constitutionally enshrined neutrality. Sandu told Politico that the country is considering its next move.

“There is a serious discussion going on now… about our ability to defend ourselves, whether we can do it ourselves or whether we should become part of a larger alliance,” she said, without directly mentioning NATO.

“And if at some point we as a nation come to the conclusion that we need to change neutrality, this should happen through a democratic process,” the president added. Sandu also rejected the idea that Moldova’s actions to strengthen its defenses are provocative.

After the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the Prime Minister of the Republic, Natalia Gavrilitsa, in an interview with Euronews in March 2022, said that Moldova wants to join the European Union, but does not plan to join NATO. Then she explained that the principle of neutrality is enshrined in the Constitution of the country.

In January, Sandu reported that Moldova applied to its Western allies with a request to strengthen its air defense capabilities against the backdrop of a Russian special operation.

On January 14, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova announced the discovery by a patrol of the border police of rocket fragments near the village of Larga, Briceni district, in the north of the country, near the border with Ukraine. The department recalled that this is the third time that rocket fragments have fallen on the territory of the republic.

Moldova has been cooperating with NATO since 1994 within the framework of an individual partnership plan. Since October 2007, the information center of the alliance has been operating in Chisinau, since December 2017 – the NATO Liaison Office. Moldova signed an association agreement with the EU in June 2014, together with Ukraine and Georgia, undertaking a number of obligations in return for the introduction of a visa-free regime with the EU and the creation of a free trade area.