Moldova’s accession to NATO would increase chances of settling Transnistrian conflict, MAE leader says

Moldova’s accession to NATO would increase the chances of solving the Transnistrian conflict, considers the president of the European Action Movement (MAE). At a news conference on February 6, Anatol Petrencu said that once accepted into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Moldova will become a member of the most powerful politico-military alliance of the world and then the Transnistrian dispute would be probably discussed with Vladimir Putin’s successor from other positions, Info-Prim Neo reports. The MAE representatives consider that Moldova must renounce the pretended neutrality and join NATO. According to Petrencu, article 11 of the Constitution, which stipulates that Moldova is a neutral state and which is invoked by the authorities as well as article 13 regarding the state language can be modified because the constitutions are historical documents approved in certain contexts. At the same time, the MAE leader says that if Russia really and not declaratively observed Moldova’s neutrality, sovereignty and independence, it would honour its commitments regarding the withdrawal of its troops from the Transnistrian region. Asked if the accession to NATO would not cause a new military conflict in the region, reserve colonel Andrei Covrig, one of the MAE leaders, expressed his conviction that there will be no war in the Transnistrian region and that the conflict will be solved exclusively by political dialogue. The cited source said that the existence of a frozen conflict in the region must not be considered an impediment to joining NATO. Asked if NATO is interested in accepting Moldova as a member, Covrig said that as part of the Moldova-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan the Moldovan combat engineers in Iraq and the Moldovan military men at the joint military exercises showed great skill. Andrei Covrig says that the country’s neutrality status should be reviewed. He expressed his concern that the authorities could propose Moldova’s security strategy to the civil society in a distorted form so that it matches Russia’s demands. Given that only about 20% of the country’s population are in favour of joining NATO and the percentage is decreasing according to opinion polls, the MAE members consider it necessary to organise a broad awareness raising campaign in order to make the people understand what the advantages are. At the same time, Anatol Petrencu said that the over 60% of the citizens that want Moldova to join the EU must understand that to do this it needs NATO’s support. In another development, Anatol Pentrencu specified that MAE will take part in the campaign for elections in the Gagauzia People’s Assembly and will use this occasion to convince the electorate in Gagauzia that Moldova should be in the European Union and in NATO and that all the Moldovan people should speak the Romanian language. The elections in Gagauzia will be held on March 16.