Moldova’s cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance intensified in terms of building institutional and national resilience to various challenges, including Russia’s hybrid war in Moldova, Minister of Defense Anatolie Nosatyi said at the anniversary conference “NATO and the Republic of Moldova - 30 years of Partnership for Peace”, IPN reports.
According to the minister, the increase in the number of projects within the assistance package of the Defense Capacity Building Initiative is one of the actions confirming the intensification of the cooperation with NATO. It aims to broaden the spectrum of cooperation relations for the modernization of the defense and security sector of the Republic of Moldova, with emphasis on building the resilience of national institutions to new threats. It goes to the countering of hybrid threats, cyber defense and also modernization of defense capabilities, strengthening of integrity and professional development of defense specialists.
According to Anatolie Nosatyi, the cooperation with NATO is one of the most productive partnerships of the Republic of Moldova in modernizing the national defense system. Three decades of cooperation were marked by assistance projects, training of the National Army staff, participation in multinational exercises, and also expertise and exchange of experience in the context of the reformation of the defense sector according to national standards and democratic principles. All these achievements are the result of a high-level political dialogue.
U.S. Ambassador to Moldova Kent D. Logsdon said the Partnership for Peace has become a cooperation mechanism for greater transparency, trust, security, and a more peaceful world. Over the past three decades, the National Army has been training and participating together with NATO states in the KFOR Mission. The diplomat believes that the relations developed over the past 30 years within the Partnership for Peace will allow the Republic of Moldova to make an important contribution to lasting peace in Europe.
Romania’s Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova Cristian-Leon Țurcanu noted that the need for peace led to the creation of the Partnership from which Moldova has benefited in the past 30 years. Russia’s aggression affects Moldova the most, after Ukraine, because Moldova is subjected daily to a particularly strong hybrid war, which manifests itself practically in all the fields, from information to religion. Moldova has managed with great efforts to achieve remarkable results in 30 years with the support of NATO and the allied countries.
The relations with NATO were established in 1992, when Moldova joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. This forum for dialogue was succeeded in 1997 by the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, which brings together all allied and partner countries of the Euro-Atlantic area. Bilateral cooperation began when Moldova joined the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Program in 1994. The focus on supporting the reform has progressively increased since 2006, when the country adopted its first two-year Individual Partnership Action Plan.
The international scientific conference titled “NATO and the Republic of Moldova – 30 years of Partnership for Peace” was organized by the Agency for Military Science and Memory in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in the Republic of Moldova.
