Senior official: NATO willing to go as far as Moldova willing to go in relationship with it

NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană has said that the North Atlantic Alliance is willing to go as far as the Republic of Moldova is willing to go in the relationship with NATO.

NATO has long passed the Partnership for Peace stage in its relationship with the Republic of Moldova, Geoană said in an exclusive interview for Agerpres in Brussels, after the conclusion of the meeting of foreign ministers from the Alliance states, according to Radio Moldova.

"The Republic of Moldova has been a partner with us for several decades and, obviously, the awakening to the sad reality that Russia is a very aggressive country that uses military force against its neighbours made them come up with even more ambitious proposals in the already existing partnership with NATO and with the European Union", said the deputy general secretary of NATO.

"This package of defence and resilience capabilities that the Republic of Moldova presented to us as an organisation, the allied states on a bilateral level, the European Union as an organisation, the EU member states on a bilateral level and the joint NATO-EU partnership for the Republic of Moldova is in the attention our and even our foreign ministers emphasised the need to support additionally, practically, financially, politically the Republic of Moldova and the other partners under increasing pressure from the Russian Federation", added Geoană.

In fact, he included addressing the security problems of the partner countries - the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina - among the priorities he will have during his mandate as Deputy Secretary General of NATO, recently extended until October 2024.