The political processes witnessed in Moldova in the recent past – the presidential elections and the calling of snap parliamentary elections – speak about massive popular support for the fight against corruption, reformation of the political class and breaking of the chain of crises – sanitary, economic, social, ecological and demographic. This desideratum dictates the profound transformation of the state institutions, including the security and national defense systems, Viorel Cibotaru, executive director of the European Institute for Political Studies, of Moldova and Nicu Popescu, director of the Wider Europe program at the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, say in an analytical note that is quoted by IPN.

“The Republic of Moldova, in the short term, should develop the framework of regional cooperation with Ukraine and Georgia, international cooperation with the EU and the U.S. and the potential of the partnership relations with NATO for assessing the risks, increasing the capacities for counteracting the eventual threats to security and conventional and hybrid military intervention,” stated Nicu Popescu.

The authors said that investments in a complex, modern and sophisticated revision system are needed at the first stage so as to know and anticipate the moves of the potential opponent, in parallel with the building of the Republic of Moldova’s resilience to different external attacks and interference in the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. This implies the rethinking of the structure of the National Army, which would be much more flexible and from which useless components would disappear and capacities and people ready to use the modern technology for defending the national territory, the citizens and the state integrity would appear.

According to the authors, all the pro-reform political players, the responsible authorities, civil society, national experts and the international partners of the Republic of Moldova should become involved in the reform of the security sector and assist the national authorities with methodologies, expertise and the necessary technical assistance.

The experts suggest creating a public security and defense issues platform for discussing and developing ideas and proposals for reforming the security system, constituting a consultancy committee under the President of the Republic of Moldova and under the aegis of the European Council on Foreign Relations, inter-institutional coordination groups on such issues as international cooperation in international security.