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President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday that regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine there was no actual intelligence that Moldova was indeed militarily threatened or targeted by someone.
Moldova is a "very important" subject in Romania, Iohannis told a joint news conference with visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"Moldova is a very important subject in Romania, it concerns us and it is obviously a subject that concerns both of us. Romania and Germany have cooperated very well in terms of the relationship with Moldova. I think things will continue the same (...) As far as NATO and the EU are concerned, we need to differentiate a little bit. Moldova has declared itself a neutral state. There are joint projects, but Moldova remains a neutral state. Speaking of the war in Ukraine, we have no actual intelligence that Moldova is threatened in a concrete way militarily or that it is targeted by someone. Certainly there have been provocations in Transnistria, without any concrete consequences. We were all worried, it made us think about this situation," said Iohannis.
He reconfirmed that Romania supports the integration of Moldova with the European Union.
"The integration has been requested by Moldova, who has submitted an official membership request, it has been wanted by Romania for a long time, we support Moldova. Romania has sent teams of experts for many years to help with the integration of Moldova, so we see things the same way the people of the Republic of Moldova want, and there is support there for EU integration and such support has grown a lot in recent years among the population of Moldova, which is an opportunity for us to hope that Moldova, in - a reasonable amount of time - will become part of the EU, and Romania and Germany support that," Iohannis explained.
In his turn, the German president said Russia's chances of destabilising Moldova are well known, but Moldova's national leaders are strong enough to oppose them.
"We are living at a time when it is difficult to exclude certain things. We have been surprised too many times by announcements from Russia that would contradict its conduct of past years. Now, there is this war of aggression that Russia is waging against Ukraine at maximum brutality. Therefore, in terms of the risks of this war to the neighbourhood, we have deepened that in our conversation, and as far as your question about Russia's military activities in the Republic of Moldova is concerned, our concern about the destabilisation of Moldova is not new, and worries about military activities are in any case generated by Russia's influence in Transnistria. On my visit there, I witnessed some threats from Russia to Moldova to shut down the gas supply and then the gas supply was renewed but at a disadvantage for Moldova. So, we cannot rule out anything, but Russia's ways of destabilising Moldova are well known. Russia is using them, and [Moldova's] President Maia Sandu and the government are strong enough to oppose them," said Steinmeier.
He added that Moldova needed help not only in the form of aid, but also with the large number of refugees arriving from Ukraine.
AGERPRES
