The Russian Federation is the only one that violates the neutrality of the Republic of Moldova by illegally maintaining a contingent of troops on the left bank of the Nistru, director of the Euro-Atlantic Institute for Building Resilience Radu Burduja stated in a public debate hosted by IPN. According to him, Moldova’s neutrality doesn’t mean that the country should be isolated and deprived of strategic partnerships in the field of defense.
Bucharest proposed a bill to amend the national defense law so that Romania can send troops abroad to defend its own citizens. Military expert Radu Burduja said that the initiative refers also to the Romanian citizens on the territory of the Republic of Moldova and gives the President of Romania the opportunity to act in case of military aggression or terrorist attacks.
“The President of the country can expressly give orders by decree to accelerate military actions. Because, as a rule, these actions are time-restricted. That’s why quick decision-making is necessary. It doesn’t go only to declarations of war or big conflicts, but also to situations when interventions are needed in a country to stage an anti-terrorist operation. In these cases, the President is given greater power to act. This aspect is not found in our country, in the Republic of Moldova, and maybe it would be the case to amend our legislation in this regard. This doesn’t mean that, in case of an emergency, the President of Romania will not consult Parliament or will not ask for Parliament’s opinion, but if a quick decision is needed, the legislation will allow quick action, for the armed forces to have a legislative basis to launch intervention actions,” said Radu Burduja, director of the Euro-Atlantic Institute for Building Resilience.
According to the expert, Russia, which illegally maintains its troops on the left bank of the Nistru, is the only country that violates Moldova’s neutrality is. The neutrality status doesn’t prevent Moldova from strengthening its defense capabilities.
“The Russian Federation is the only one that violates the neutrality of the Republic of Moldova by illegally keeping the contingent of Russian troops on our territory. Neutrality doesn’t mean that we must be isolated, unprotected and it doesn’t mean that we should not have capabilities to defend ourselves. Neutrality doesn’t mean that we should not develop strategic partnerships for defense purposes,” explained Radu Burduja.
The expert gave the example of Israel, which, although it is not a NATO member, benefited from the assistance of member countries to shoot down missiles and drones launched by Iran. According to him, NATO countries can provide similar support to Ukraine and Moldova.
“Last week, there was a relevant precedent, which can be also applied to the situation here. It goes to Iran’s attack on Israel, when a coalition formed by several countries assisted Israel in shooting down the launched missiles and drones. This is an important precedent that the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine can also invoke. President Zelensky already said that this method can be used in Israel, although Israel is not part of NATO and is a neutral country. But everyone came to Israel’s aid. The same mechanism can be applied to help Ukraine and also the Republic of Moldova,” said Radu Burduja.
The public debate entitled “How Russia and Romania defend their citizens abroad” was the 304th installment of IPN’s project “Developing political culture through public debates”, which is implemented with the support of the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.
