CHISINAU - Moldovan Defense Minister Anatol Salaru regards cooperation with NATO "an absolute necessity for East European countries."
“Cooperation between NATO and partners from Eastern Europe that are not alliance members is an absolutely necessity. Without NATO support neither Ukraine, nor Georgia, nor Moldova will be able to cope with the challenges of hybrid warfare leading to the rapid destabilization of the situation in the region,” Salaru said to journalists during the Sea Breeze-2016 military exercise under way in Odesa.
At the press service of the Moldovan Defense Ministry Interfax was told that at a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Stepan Poltorak Salaru also said that “the withdrawal of Russian troops is a mandatory condition of the settlement of the Transdniestrian conflict.”
Previously the Moldovan parliament adopted a declaration on the unshakeability of the principle of independence, sovereignty and neutrality of Moldova. After Salaru’s numerous public statements on the need for Moldova’s rapprochement with NATO the opposition in the middle of June tabled a draft resolution on Salaru’s dismissal. However, the majority declined the initiative of the opposition.
