The Republic of Moldova cannot ensure the necessary defense level by using the principle of neutrality. “There were statements by the NATO administration and military and political statements by Romania (in 2014, e.n.), saying that in case of an attack by the Russian Federation on the Republic of Moldova, they will not become involved in hostilities. Those were official statements and this thing should generate concern. How much does neutrality cost? That’s why I have proposed signing an agreement on mutual defense with Romania. This would be a guarantee for the security and protection of the Republic of Moldova,” former minister of defense Viorel Cibotaru stated in a discussion with IPN’s reporter.
To the reporter’s statement that “Romania, as a NATO member state, delegated a part of its sovereignty to Brussels and a member state cannot become involved in security issues beyond the NATO area as this would engage all the NATO member states”, Viorel Cibotaru said there is the precedent of Turkey. “There is such an agreement between the NATO member state Turkey and Azerbaijan. Moreover, based on that agreement, action was taken to get back a part of Azerbaijani (that was controlled by Armenia, e.n.). I definitely don’t want to see a similar agreement between the Republic of Moldova and Romania. Starting with President Voronin and ending with the next governments, including the current one in the person of Maia Sandu, these reasserted that the Republic of Moldova will never resort to military instruments in the reintegration process. And this is important. But the risks are so many in number and so unexpected, including the military ones. We are in a very vulnerable zone from this viewpoint. I’m not very much concerned about how this should be done. If it is a theoretical, legislative problem, let’s solve it. As a result, we must have an additional guarantee of the security of the citizen of the Republic of Moldova,” said Viorel Cibotaru
The former minister of defense said the principle of neutrality enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova is not respected. “The Republic of Moldova has nothing to do with neutrality or with the culture or neutrality and the behavior of a classically neural state, such as Switzerland, for example. In general, there are now practically no neutral states except Switzerland, which is neutral symbolically only. The level of participation by Switzerland in the NATO activities through the Partnership for Peace Program and through the security and foreign policy of the EU is so great that we cannot speak about the neutrality of Switzerland. But Switzerland and the Swiss perceive neutrality as noninvolvement in military conflicts,” explained Viorel Cibotaru.
In the Republic of Moldova, neutrality is perceived in a specific way. “In our country, it is imposed an unambiguous perception that is supported and formulated by the Russian Federation, which considers that the Republic of Moldova can have no relations with the Russian Federation, but should no way develop relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the EU,” noted Viorel Cibotaru.
