Official Meeting at the Ministry of Defense

CHISINAU, June 17, 2011 — Minister of Defense Vitalie Marinuta had a meeting today with Dirk Brengelmann, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy.

The officials discussed about the perspectives of further cooperation and defense reforms. The Minister of Defense stated RM-NATO relations had gradually developed and our country had implemented the RM-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP).

Thus, the Minister of Defense pointed to Republic of Moldova’s intention to join European Union, democratization of the society and enhancement of cooperation with international institutions and organizations. Vitalie Marinuta also referred to the desire of the leadership of the country to carry out a good neighboring policy and consolidate regional stability and security. Therefore, Minister Marinuta spoke about the need to settle the Transnistrian conflict in order to strengthen stability and security both in South-East Europe and worldwide.

“Military cooperation with NATO is performed within the Republic of Moldova neuter condition as a signatory part of the Partnership for Peace Program. The phenomenon focuses mainly on the raise of interoperability level of the National Army with the Alliance forces in term of settlement of crises that may occur in Europe”, the Minister of Defense stated.

Vitalie Marinuta specified “Republic of Moldova cooperation with NATO deals with the control of weapons and disarmament, civil protection, crisis settlement and prevention, counter terrorism actions, planning and organization of peacekeeping exercises, training of military and civil staff working in the defense area, as well as other military issues”. Marinuta pointed out Republic of Moldova citizens had benefited from NATO assistance in term of implementation of many projects, including chemical weapons disposal “Chemical Substances in Moldova”, destruction of Melanj missile fuel and other million-dollar investments that improved the environment security of the Republic of Moldova.

Dirk Brengelmann has highly appreciated the progress recorded by the Republic of Moldova in term of IPAP implementation. The official pointed to the need to conclude the approval procedure of the National Security Strategy, Defense Strategy Analysis and National Military Strategy.