New possibilities for Moldova – NATO partnership development

Chisinau, 13 September /MOLDPRES/ – The Cabinet of Ministers approved the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) of Moldova – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for 2017 – 2019 at the meeting today. The document outlines the priority areas and common cooperation objectives, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

As such, over the next three years, a series of actions will be undertaken to reform and modernize the security sector, develop the armed forces, combat new threats to security and promote public diplomacy. The IPAP also includes the Strengthening Defence Capabilities and Interoperability Platform objectives.

The document also provides for the opening of the NATO Liaison Office in Moldova, which is to provide Moldova with new opportunities for developing practical cooperation in the implementation of joint reforms and projects.

The IPAP also defines a number of objectives of Moldova – NATO relationship, including: organizing political consultations on security and defence issues, enhancing interoperability through continued participation in the Kosovo peacekeeping operation, plenary capitalization the possibilities offered by the NATO Peace and Security Programme, implementation of assistance projects through NATO Special Effort Funds, increased emergency preparedness, crisis management.

In this context, Prime Minister Pavel Filip mentioned: "I want to emphasize once again that the neutrality of Moldova is respected, a topic around which it is very much speculated by those ones who want to raise these discussions as high as possible. I said not once that neutrality does not mean the isolation of the country. We must have a very good collaboration in one of the objectives of modernizing the National Army."