You're reading: Moldova’s acting president denies that Moldova plans to leave CIS, enter NATO

Moldovan Parliament Speaker Mihai Gimpu, who is now acting president of Moldova, has denied that Moldova plans to leave the CIS and enter NATO.

“Moldova’s accession to NATO or withdrawal from the CIS are not
among the priorities of the ruling Alliance for European Integration,”
Gimpu said on PROTV television.

Gimpu reiterated that the Moldovan authorities intend to hold the
upcoming summit on the heads of state and heads of the governments of
the CIS countries, which is expected to take place in Chisinau in
October, “at the highest level.”

“If Moldova is already in the CIS, we can’t just cut this fact out.
We have always been for cooperation with all countries, both bilateral
and multilateral. And we will develop this cooperation constructively
and consistently. We are being criticized by the Communists, who
managed to quarrel with the whole world during their rule,” Gimpu said.

“The Communists quarreled with Russia and turned to the West, and
then quarreled with the West and turned to Russia,” Gimpu said. “All
these things hurt the interests of the country. They are now trying to
criticize us and invent something that didn’t take place. They are
speaking like NATO is already on the first floor of the Moldovan
parliament waiting for us to enter,” Gimpu said.

“It’s not a question of who we should be with, NATO or the CIS,”
Gimpu said. No one in NATO puts on the foreground accession to NATO or
withdrawal from the CIS because “first we should do everything possible
to overcome the crisis, especially through furthering reforms,” he said.

Gimpu reiterated that the new administration will not continue the
policies that the Communist Party had on Romania, but at the same time
will not unite with Romania.

“We need to accept the fact that, even though we are brothers, we
are still two countries, and every government decides what to do to
benefit its citizens. I want to achieve higher living standards to be
in the EU together with Romania,” Gimpu said.

Gimpu said he is going to sign a decree annulling the government
decision to impose a visa regime for Romanian citizens, which was put
in place after the April 7-8 riots in Moldova.

“This decision contradicts the parliamentary decree canceling visas
for all EU citizens, and Romania is a member of the EU. I’m confident
that the decision to annul visas will make everyone happy and will help
build normal relations with our neighbor,” he said.