Liberals plead for Moldova’s membership in NATO

Not a single major objective Moldova intends to implement can be brought to life without joining NATO, declared on Wednesday, May 24, at a press conference, the president of the Liberal Party (LP) Mihai Ghimpu. According to the liberal leader, if Moldova will not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it will miss the occasion to settle down the Transnistrian problem, inclusively retreating of the Russian troops and military arsenal, the European integration and ensuring the political and economical security. “The Republic of Moldova will not be able to influence the Russian Federation to retreat its troops and military arsenal from Transnistria; this can be done only with the support of a powerful ally as NATO is”, said Ghimpu. The Republic of Moldova must launch the process by affirming official will for joining, by changing the 11th article of the Constitution which stipulates the neutrality of the Republic of Moldova. According to Ghimpu, the membership in the Euro-Atlantic structure will offer consistence and legitimacy to the European step. The experience of the Eastern European countries that opted for the European integration proved that NATO is a precursory stage for the integration, also declared the LP chairman. Ghimpu qualified as opportune the recent GUAM summit and the decision to change the statute of this organization, saying that Moldova will beneficiate of the GUAM membership. Commenting the declaration of Vladimir Voronin, according to which “Moldova searches variants to escape CIS”, Ghimpu termed it as “diplomatic”, when a clear answer was necessary taking in consideration the fact that the president has foreign affairs competences.