NATO official to visit Moldova

Robert Simmons, Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Security Cooperation and Partnership, will visit Moldova on January 16-18. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, the visit agenda includes meetings with Moldovan officials on the present state of Moldova-NATO relations, the presidential initiatives regarding the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and the implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP). During his visit, Robert Simmons will meet President Vladimir Voronin, Speaker Marian Lupu, Iurie Stoicov, Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Security, Defence and Public Order, Andrei Stratan, Deputy Prime Minister and concurrently Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Vitalie Vrabie, Minister of Defence, Ion Morei, Secretary of the Supreme Security Council. The NATO official will also pay a visit to the Military Institute “Alexandru cel Bun” in Chisinau. The NATO Information and Documentation Centre informs that Thursday, January 17, on the occasion of the official’s visit to the Centre, there will be organised a roundtable meeting themed “Moldova-NATO partnership: strengthening security by implementing the IPAP”, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova, with the support of NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. The roundtable meeting will take place as part of the “NATO’s Friends” club, launched on November 30, 2007 by the Chisinau-based NATO Centre. The aim of this event is to open a constructive dialogue regarding the role of the Moldova-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) in strengthening Moldova’s national security. The participants in the roundtable will discuss IPAP implementation related issues, the shortcomings and progress registered during one and a half year since the approval of the document.