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NATO member countries Accession protocol signed Countries in the process of accession Countries promised invitations | Membership is not the goal Countries have not announced their membership intentions |
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Official relations between Moldova and NATO began in 1992 when Moldova joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. However, as Moldova's neutrality is enshrined in its constitution, there are no official plans for Moldova to join the organization.
Moldova is a neutral country. Article 11 of the Constitution of Moldova states: "The Republic of Moldova proclaims its permanent neutrality. The Republic of Moldova does not allow the deployment of armed forces of other states on its territory."
In 1992, Moldova joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, renamed the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) in 1997. Relations expanded when Moldova joined the Partnership for Peace programme (PfP) in 1994. The Partnership for Peace was signed by Mircea Snegur and Manfred Wörner, on 16 March 1994, with Moldova becoming the 12th signatory country and the second of the Commonwealth of Independent States after Ukraine.
On July 8, 1997, Petru Lucinschi and Mihai Popov, the Foreign Minister of Moldova attended the NATO summit in Madrid. [1]
The Mission of Moldova to NATO was established in 1997 with the appointment of the first Moldovan representative to the EAPC. The mission is located within the Embassy of Moldova in Brussels and has a liaison office in the premises of NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Vladimir Voronin visited NATO headquarters in Brussels on 23 June 2003, 7 June 2005, 22 June 2006, 18 June 2007, and 5 December 2007.
At the 2004 Istanbul summit, NATO accepted Russia's military presence in Moldova and Georgia (the withdrawal of these troops was an obligation Russia had assumed at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's 1999 Istanbul summit). [2] [3] US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stopped, en route to Istanbul, in Moldova, where he called for the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. [4]
On 23 September 2004, the NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, traveled to Chişinău where he met with President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin, with Foreign Minister of Moldova Andrei Stratan and Minister of Defence Victor Gaiciuc.
The Individual Partnership Action Plan between NATO and Moldova was signed on 19 May 2006.
With the support of NATO's Public Diplomacy Division, an Information and Documentation Centre on NATO was inaugurated at the Moldova State University in October 2007.
On 3 April, at the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO announced its support for the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Moldova. [5] [6] Voronin participated to the Working Lunch of the Heads of State and Government of countries Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in Bucharest.
On 18 November 2008, NATO Parliamentary Assembly adopted Resolution 371 on the future of NATO–Russia relations, with among other things, "urges the government and the parliament of Russia to respect its commitments which were taken at the Istanbul OSCE Summit in 1999 and has to withdraw its illegal military presence from the Transdnestrian region of Moldova in the nearest future." [7]
In 2009, Moldova cancelled its attendance of the Cooperative 09 in response to a troop mutiny in Georgia. [8]
The former communist government, which lost its majority in parliament in 2009 elections, was seen as more allied with Russia and was already a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In April 2009, Moldova announced it would not participate in the June NATO military exercises. The new ruling party, the Alliance for European Integration, declined to take any action to either move towards membership, or withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States, and denied plans to do either. [9]
Some Moldovan politicians, such as former Minister of Defence Vitalie Marinuța, have suggested joining NATO as part of a larger European integration. The current Prime Minister of Moldova, Dorin Recean, supports European Union membership, but not NATO membership, [10] as did his predecessor Natalia Gavrilița, and her Party of Action and Solidarity. [11] The second largest alliance in the parliament of Moldova, the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists, strongly opposes NATO membership. [12]
Following the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, NATO officials warned that Russia might seek to annex Transnistria, a breakaway Moldovan region. [13] This separatist issue could preclude Moldova from joining NATO, [14] due to an unwillingness of alliance members to commit to defending a state which does not control its whole territory.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu stated in January 2023 that there was "serious discussion" about joining "a larger alliance" following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though she did not specifically name NATO. [15]
Some Moldovan politicians, including former Prime Minister Iurie Leancă, have also supported the idea of unifying with neighboring NATO member Romania, which Moldova shares a language and much of its history with. A poll in April 2021 found that 43.9% of those surveyed supported that idea. [16]
On 2 February 2023, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov declared that Moldova might have Ukraine's fate (meaning to be attacked by Russia) if the Moldovan president Maia Sandu wants Moldova to unite with Romania and join NATO. [17] [18] [19]
A poll in June 2018 found that 22% of Moldovans would vote in favour of joining NATO, while 43% would oppose. [20]
Another poll in December 2018 found that, if given the choice in a referendum, 22% of Moldovans would vote in favor of joining NATO, while 32% would vote against it and 21% would be unsure. [21]
In May 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine had begun, a poll in Moldova found that 24.5% supported NATO membership. [22]
In February 2023, 24% would vote in favor of NATO membership while 62% would vote against, according to an IMAS poll. [23]
The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) is a post–Cold War, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) institution. The EAPC is a multilateral forum created to improve relations between NATO and non-NATO countries in Europe and Central Asia. States meet to cooperate and discuss political and security issues. It was formed on 29 May 1997 at a Ministers’ meeting held in Sintra, Portugal, as the successor to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which was created in 1991.
The unification of Moldova and Romania or simply called as the Romanian reunification is a popular concept and hypothetical unification in the two countries that began during the Revolutions of 1989. The Romanian Revolution in 1989 and the independence of Moldova in 1991 further contributed to the development of a movement for the unification of the two Romanian-speaking countries. The question of reunification is recurrent in the public sphere of the two countries, often as a speculation, both as a goal and a danger. Though historically Romanian support for unification was high, a March 2022 survey following the Russian invasion of Ukraine indicated that only 11% of Romania's population supports an immediate union, while over 42% think it is not the right moment.
Relations between the European Union (EU) and Moldova are currently shaped via the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), an EU foreign policy instrument dealing with countries bordering its member states.
The Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty is a post–Cold War adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed on November 19, 1999, during the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) 1999 Istanbul summit. The main difference with the earlier treaty is that the troop ceilings on a bloc-to-bloc basis would be replaced with a system of national and territorial ceilings. Furthermore, the adapted treaty would provide for more inspections and new mechanisms designed to reinforce States Parties’ ability to grant or withhold consent for the stationing of foreign forces on their territory.
The 2004 Istanbul summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey from 28 to 29 June 2004. It was the 18th NATO summit in which NATO's Heads of State and Governments met to make formal decisions about security topics. In general, the summit is seen as a continuation of the transformation process that began in the 2002 Prague summit, which hoped to create a shift from a Cold War alliance against Soviet aggression to a 21st-century coalition against new and out-of-area security threats. The summit consisted of four meetings.
Modern Moldova-Romania relations emerged after the Republic of Moldova gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Pan-Romanianism has been a consistent part of Moldovan politics, and was adopted in the Popular Front of Moldova's platform in 1992. The official language of Moldova is Romanian. The peoples of the two countries share common traditions and folklore, including a common name for the monetary unit – the leu. At present, relations between the two states are exceptionally friendly, especially on account of the pro-Romanian administration of Maia Sandu in Moldova.
NATO is a military alliance of thirty-two European and North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows for the invitation of "other European States" only and by subsequent agreements. Countries wishing to join must meet certain requirements and complete a multi-step process involving political dialogue and military integration. The accession process is overseen by the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body. NATO was formed in 1949 with twelve founding members and has added new members ten times. The first additions were Greece and Turkey in 1952. In May 1955, West Germany joined NATO, which was one of the conditions agreed to as part of the end of the country's occupation by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, prompting the Soviet Union to form its own collective security alliance later that month. Following the end of the Franco regime, newly democratic Spain chose to join NATO in 1982.
Moldova–Ukraine relations are the bilateral/diplomatic/foreign relations between the sovereign states of Moldova and Ukraine. The Moldova–Ukraine border is 985 kilometers. Ukrainians are the third largest ethnic group in Moldova, behind Moldovans and Romanians. Both countries were former republics of the Soviet Union and are also the poorest countries in Europe. Both countries have applied for membership to join the European Union in 2022.
Moldovan-Spanish relations are foreign relations between Spain and Moldova. On 30 January 1992, Spain established diplomatic relations with Moldova. Spain is represented in Moldova via its embassy in Bucharest in Romania.
Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) started in 1991 following Ukraine's independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ukraine-NATO ties gradually strengthened during the 1990s and 2000s, and Ukraine aimed to eventually join the alliance. Although co-operating with NATO, Ukraine remained a neutral country. After it was attacked by Russia in 2014, Ukraine has increasingly sought NATO membership.
NATO maintains foreign relations with many non-member countries across the globe. NATO runs a number of programs which provide a framework for the partnerships between itself and these non-member nations, typically based on that country's location. These include the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Partnership for Peace.
Dorin Recean is a Moldovan economist and politician serving as Prime Minister of Moldova since February 2023. Since 2022 he has also served as Presidential Advisor on Defense and National Security, and Secretary of Moldova's Supreme Security Council. He previously served as Minister of Internal Affairs of Moldova from July 2012 to February 2015. He has extensive experience in the private sector and in the IT industry with a specialisation in data, including big data, and information analysis. He also worked in development institutions and was previously a lecturer at several universities.
Maia Sandu is a Moldovan politician who has been the President of Moldova since 24 December 2020. She is the founder and former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and former Prime Minister of Moldova from 8 June 2019 until 14 November 2019, when the government collapsed after a vote of no-confidence. Sandu was Minister of Education from 2012 to 2015 and member of the Parliament of Moldova from 2014 to 2015, and again in 2019.
The accession of Moldova to the European Union (EU) is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU.
Nicolae "Nicu" Popescu is a Moldovan author and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova from 6 August 2021 until 26 January 2024 in the Gavrilita and then Recean cabinets. He was also Moldova's Foreign Minister from 11 June - 14 November 2019 in the Sandu Cabinet. Until his appointment, he was the director of the Wider Europe programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations and visiting professor at Sciences Po-Paris.
Natalia Gavrilița is a Moldovan economist and politician who served as prime minister of Moldova from 2021 until her resignation in February 2023 after failure to get her reform package enacted.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Romania has supported Moldova on several occasions, supplying it with medical equipment and supplies, volunteer Romanian experts and doctors and even a series of COVID-19 vaccine units that arrived on 27 February 2021, which allowed Moldova to start its vaccination program.
The Second European Political Community Summit was a meeting of the European Political Community held on 1 June 2023 at Mimi Castle, Bulboaca, 35 kilometres from Chișinău, Moldova. It was attended by forty-five heads of states and governments, as well as leaders of European Union institutions.
On 18 September 2022, protests in Moldova began in the capital city of Chișinău, demanding the resignation of the country's pro-Western government, amid an energy crisis causing rising natural gas prices and inflation, caused in part by the war in Ukraine.
Moldova is officially a neutral country. Neutrality is enshrined by Article 11 of the 1994 Constitution of Moldova. Adopted following Moldova's defeat in the Transnistria War in 1992, neutrality enjoys widespread support among the Moldovan population. Moldova together with Turkmenistan are the only post-Soviet states that declared neutrality after independence.