Robert Simmons: Moldova’s relations with NATO must be supported and understood by civil society and population

Moldova’s relations with NATO must be supported and understood by the civil society and population of Moldova, Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO Robert Simmons said at the roundtable meeting themed “Moldova-NATO Partnership: consolidation of security by implementing IPAP”. Robert Simmons explained that NATO does not regard Moldova as a future member of the Organisation. At the same time, NATO respects Moldova’s desideratum to join the European Union and its neutrality. The main cooperation framework between the two sides is the Moldova-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), which concerns the political and military reforms in Moldova, the official said. Simmons stated that some of the IPAP provisions can be found in the EU-Moldova Individual Action Plan, too. According to Simmons, NATO considers that Moldova should preserve its territorial integrity and that Russia should fulfil the commitments to pull out its troops from Transnistria assumed in Istanbul in 1999. Asked if NATO has levers to convince Russia to honour its commitments, Simmons said that NATO does not take part in the Transnistria conflict settlement talks, but hopes to make Russia re-enter the CFE Treaty through negotiations. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Eugenia Kistruga confirmed the existence of an eloquent dialogue between the two sides and said that Moldova pays great attention to the IPAP’s implementation. The roundtable meeting was organised at the “NATO Friends” Club by the NATO Information and Documentation Centre in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry of Moldova with support from the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. According to a survey carried out by the Marketing and Polling Institute IMAS-INC last December, only 27% of the respondents trust NATO, while 46% do not trust it. Chisinau politicians and analysts consider that the population’s reserved attitude towards NATO stems from the facts that Moldova remains a prisoner of the Russian information space and that the Moldovan authorities are not interested in creating another image to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.