NATO vows to back Moldova, other allies
• Apart from Ukraine, Moldova has been hit hardest by Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, the Moldavian foreign minister said Wednesday, as NATO offered fresh support to three countries shaken by the effects of Moscow’s 10-monthold war.
Nicu Popescu told The Associated Press in an interview in Romania’s capital that “we want to be expanding our co-operation with partners who support Moldova ... that includes the European Union (and) NATO.”
That support for Moldova — as well as Georgia and Bosnia — came from NATO allies also on Wednesday when the three countries’ foreign ministers met with their NATO counterparts to discuss how the world’s biggest security organization could help them in the face of political, energy and territorial uncertainty precipitated by the war.
NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said after talks that the allies discussed shared security concerns with the three countries which he said are facing Russian pressure. Stoltenberg said alliance members agreed to help train and improve the three nations’ security and defence institutions.
“If there is one lesson learned from Ukraine it’s that we need to support them now ... when we have seen developments going in the absolutely wrong direction as we saw with the invasion of Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said at the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has had a particularly troubling effect on Moldova, Ukraine’s neighbour, which is currently facing a severe energy crisis due to its reliance on Russian energy.
In recent weeks it has suffered massive power outages as a result of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid. Russian missiles have also traversed its skies, missile debris has landed on its soil, and in April blasts occurred in the country’s Russian-backed breakaway region of Transnistria — where Moscow bases around 1,500 troops.
“Every week there is something new, there’s a new negative effect of this war on us,” Popescu said. “Last week ... almost 80-90 per cent of the country was plunged into darkness for most of a day. This is a really, totally unacceptable, very aggressive Russian campaign that targets Ukraine but also in complete disregard of our security.”
Moldova was granted EU candidate status in June, the same day as Ukraine, and is constitutionally neutral, but “neutrality does not mean demilitarization, we need the military means and all the other means to defend our country, to defend our peace, to defend our people from aggression,” Popescu added.
Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday that Bosnia — which has long been wracked by political instability, Russian interference and ethnic tensions — is “important for stability in the whole of the Western Balkans.”