The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration has hosted the NATO Resilience Advisory Support Team (RAST) that is paying a visit to the Republic of Moldova. The visit is made in connection with the thematic meetings on resilience building and increasing of preparedness for civil emergencies that will take place at different institutions during two days, IPN reports.

The event to open the program involved secretary of state of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Vladimir Cuc, the Government’s secretary of state Adrian Băluțel, secretary of state of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Romania Raed Arafat, NATO civil experts and representatives of national institutions.

Vladimir Cuc spoke about the importance of building resilience in the Republic of Moldova in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The support of the experts from the Bucharest Euro-Atlantic Center for Resilience, who form part of the delegation, is one of the important elements in this regard.

“The discussions with the team of experts will help the national authorities better identify the ties and interdependencies between different public policy sectors and to build the country’s resilience in general,” said Vladimir Cuc, being quoted in a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.

For his part, Adrian Băluțel underlined the importance of building strong and resilient institutions that can respond to the threats experienced by the region. According to him, expertise from the NATO team, from Romania is needed to help Moldova build solid and sustainable resilience.

Doctor Raed Arafat referred to the close cooperation with the Moldovan authorities and the Romanian experts’ readiness to offer the necessary expertise to Moldova. “Resilience is never fully ensured. This process starts and is continuous. Something new always appears. Resilience is a collective aspect. It should be integrated. If a country is not resilient, this affects the neighboring country. This way, we are interdependent. Resilience means being ready for and responding swiftly to emergencies,” stated the Romanian official.