Moldova has no chances to join NATO as long as Transnistrian conflict is unsolved

Even if Moldova’s accession to NATO was brought up, this thing would not happen as long as Russia has troops in the Transnistrian region, Viorica Antonov, head of the foreign relations division of the NATO Information and Documentation Centre, said during public debated on October 31. She stated that the given issue cannot be even raised because under the Constitution, Moldova has a status of neutrality. The accession to NATO does not envisage huge expenses for the army, Antonov said. The NATO members Iceland and Luxemburg do not even have an army of their own, she said. At the same time, foreign policy expert Alexandru Lesanu said that Moldova’s joining of NATO depends on the was in which it will implement the NATO-Moldova Individual Partnership Action Plan. This can be seen from the way in which the EU-Moldova Action Plan is being implemented. The experts said that the Republic of Moldova can join the EU without being a NATO member, if Russia agrees to Moldova’s accession to the EU without joining NATO. The ruling party in Moldova does not even envision Moldova’s accession to NATO, while for certain Opposition parties this objective forms part of their political platforms. According to the last Public Opinion Barometer, 29% of the population would vote for Moldova’s accession to NATO, as opposed to about 34% in the previous surveys. At the same time, 27% of the respondents would vote against. This is a little more that in the previous polls. Some 26% of those questioned said that the accession to NATO is the best solution for guaranteeing security, while over 38% said this about neutrality.