REYKJAVIK: Moldova wants EU membership “as soon as possible” as protection against a threat from Russia and hopes for a decision to start negotiations “in the next months,” President Maia Sandu said in an interview.
The small nation of 2.6 million people, nestled between EU neighbor Romania and war-ravaged Ukraine, will on June 1 hold its first major summit of wider Europe.
That gathering of the European Political Community – a forum created last year that brings together leaders of all 27 EU countries with 20 neighbors of the bloc – will be an occasion for Moldova to burnish its candidate credentials.
For Sandu, EU membership is the only guarantee against becoming Russia’s next target. Her country, a former Soviet republic, already has a breakaway region, Transnistria, where Russia has stationed a small number of troops.
“Of course, nothing compares to what is happening in Ukraine, but we see the risks and we do believe that we can save our democracy only as part of the EU,” she said.
“We do believe that Russia will continue to be a big source of instability for the years to come and we need to protect ourselves,” added Sandu, on the sidelines of a Council of Europe of summit in Iceland that wrapped up on Tuesday. The 50-year-old leader, in office since 2020, in February accused Russia of fomenting a coup to try to seize power in Moldova. –Agencies
