A Moldovan-Romanian peacekeeping military unit will be set up based on an agreement between Minister of Defense Viorel Cibotaru and his Romanian counterpart Mircea Dusa. The announcement was made by Viorel Cibotaru in an interview for the national station Radio Moldova, IPN reports.

“It is an idea of mine dating from 1993, which I think can be put into practice now. I agreed with Mircea Dusa to work out a roadmap to decide the command, structure and other details. We did some calculations and these turned out to be much lower than we expected,” stated Viorel Cibotaru.

The minister said Moldova needs Romania’s experience. Over the Prut, the army tops the popular approval rankings. During his recent visit to Bucharest, he had discussions on concrete programs, bilateral exercises and technical-military matters.

The official pleaded for extending the cooperation with NATO. “In Brussels, we discussed with all the NATO ambassadors. The goal was to convince them to allow Moldova to take part in a new type of exercise that will help strengthen our defense capacity. We expressed our wish to take part in peacekeeping missions. This way we will significantly improve the country’s image and will turn from a consumer into a supplier of security,” said the minister.