Official relations between

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

began in 1992 when Moldova joined the

North Atlantic Cooperation Council The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) is a post–Cold War, NATO, 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 Centr ...

. However, as Moldova's neutrality is enshrined in its

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

, there are no official plans for Moldova to

join Join may refer to: * Join (law), to include additional counts or additional defendants on an indictment *In mathematics: ** Join (mathematics), a least upper bound of sets orders in lattice theory ** Join (topology), an operation combining two topo ...

the organization.

Neutrality

Moldova is a

neutral country A neutral country is a sovereign state, state that is neutral towards belligerents in a specific war or holds itself as permanently neutral in all future conflicts (including avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO, Collective Sec ...

. 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."

History

In 1992, Moldova joined the

, renamed the

Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council 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 Asi ...

(EAPC) in 1997. Relations expanded when Moldova joined the

Partnership for Peace The Partnership for Peace (PfP; ) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust and cooperation between the member states of NATO and other states mostly in Europe, including post-Soviet states; 18 states are ...

programme (PfP) in 1994. The Partnership for Peace was signed by

Mircea Snegur Mircea Snegur (; 17 January 1940 – 13 September 2023) was a Moldovan agronomist and politician who served as the first President of Moldova from 1990 to 1997. Prior to that, he served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of ...

and

Manfred Wörner Manfred Hermann Wörner (24 September 1934 – 13 August 1994) was a German politician and diplomat. He served as the defense minister of West Germany between 1982 and 1988. He then served as the seventh Secretary General of NATO from 1988 to ...

, on 16 March 1994, with Moldova becoming the 12th signatory country and the second of the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...

after

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. On July 8, 1997,

Petru Lucinschi Petru Lucinschi (; born 27 January 1940) is a former Moldovan politician who was Moldova's second President from 1997 to 2001. He currently serves as the founder and head of the Lucinschi Foundation of Strategic Studies and International Relat ...

and Mihai Popov, the Foreign Minister of Moldova attended the

NATO summit A NATO summit is a summit (meeting), summit meeting that is regarded as a periodic opportunity for head of state, heads of state and head of government, heads of government of NATO member countries to evaluate and provide strategic direction ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. 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

headquarters in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Vladimir Voronin Vladimir Voronin (; born Vladimir Bujeniță, 25 May 1941) is a Moldovan politician. He was the third President of Moldova#Republic of Moldova (1991–present), President of Moldova from 2001 until 2009 and has been the leader of the Party of ...

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 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 c ...

, NATO accepted

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

's military presence in Moldova and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

(the withdrawal of these troops was an obligation Russia had assumed at the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

's 1999 Istanbul summit). US Defense Secretary

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, businessman, and naval officer who served as United States Secretary of Defense, secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and again ...

stopped, en route to Istanbul, in Moldova, where he called for the withdrawal of Russian forces from the country. On 23 September 2004, the NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, traveled to Chişinău where he met with

President of Moldova The president of the Republic of Moldova () is the head of state of Moldova. The current president is Maia Sandu, who assumed office on 24 December 2020. Duties and functions The president "represents the State" and is "…the guarantor of n ...

, with Foreign Minister of Moldova

Andrei Stratan Andrei Stratan (born 3 September 1966) is a Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romani ...

and Minister of Defence

Victor Gaiciuc Victor Gaiciuc (born 12 March 1957) is a Moldovan general (military), military general, who served as Moldovan Minister of Defense, Minister of Defense of Moldova from 2001 until 2004, 2019 until 2020 and 2020 until 2021. He was also the Defense a ...

. The

Individual Partnership Action Plan Individual Partnership Action Plans (IPAP) are plans developed between NATO and different countries which outline the objectives and the communication framework for dialogue and cooperation between both parties. NATO launched the IPAPs initiat ...

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 Moldova State University (USM; Romanian language, Romanian: ''Universitatea de Stat din Moldova'') is a university located in Chișinău, Moldova. It was founded in 1946, and initially had five faculties, Physics and Mathematics, Geology and Ped ...

in October 2007. On 3 April, at the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO announced its support for the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Moldova. Voronin participated to the Working Lunch of the Heads of State and Government of countries

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. 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." In 2009, Moldova cancelled its attendance of the Cooperative 09 in response to a troop mutiny in Georgia. 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

. In April 2009, Moldova announced it would not participate in the June NATO military exercises. The new ruling party, the

Alliance for European Integration The Alliance for European Integration () was a centre-right, anti-communist coalition that governed Moldova from the July 2009 election until it lost to a no confidence vote in the Parliament on February 13, 2013. It was succeeded by the anti-co ...

, declined to take any action to either move towards membership, or withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States, and denied plans to do either.

Membership debate

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 The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

membership, but not NATO membership, as did his predecessor

Natalia Gavrilița Natalia Gavrilița (; born 21 September 1977) 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.

, and her

Party of Action and Solidarity The Party of Action and Solidarity (, PAS) is a liberal political party in Moldova. The PAS was founded by Maia Sandu, the former Minister of Education and the incumbent president of Moldova. A pro-European party, it is an observer of the Eu ...

. The second largest alliance in the

parliament of Moldova The parliament of the Republic of Moldova () is the supreme representative body of the Republic of Moldova, the only state legislative authority, being a unicameral structure composed of 101 elected MPs on lists, for a period or legislature o ...

, the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists, strongly opposes NATO membership. Following the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, NATO officials warned that

might seek to annex

Transnistria Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a Landlocked country, landlocked Transnistria conflict#International recognition of Transnistria, breakaway state internationally recogn ...

, a breakaway Moldovan region. This separatist issue could preclude Moldova from joining NATO, due to an unwillingness of alliance members to commit to defending a state which does not control its whole territory. Moldovan President

Maia Sandu Maia Sandu (; born 24 May 1972) is a Moldovan politician who is serving as the sixth president of Moldova since 2020. She is the founder and former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity and was Prime Minister of Moldova, prime minister o ...

stated in January 2023 that there was "serious discussion" about joining "a larger alliance" following the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, though she did not specifically name NATO. Some Moldovan politicians, including former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Iurie Leancă Iurie Leancă (; born 20 October 1963) is a Moldovan politician who was the Prime Minister of Moldova, prime minister of Moldova from 2013 until 2015. He was Foreign Minister of Moldova, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration from 20 ...

, 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. On 2 February 2023, Russian foreign minister

Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is the longest-serving Russian foreign minister since Andrei Gromyko d ...

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.

Public opinion

A poll in June 2018 found that 22% of Moldovans would vote in favour of joining NATO, while 43% would oppose. 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. In May 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine had begun, a poll in Moldova found that 24.5% supported NATO membership. In February 2023, 24% would vote in favor of NATO membership while 62% would vote against, according to an IMAS poll. In August 2024, 29.5% favored NATO membership, a decrease from 34% in April of that year.

Gallery

Image:Cid-nato office.jpg, Information Center on NATO in Moldova Image:masa rotunda dl simmons ii.jpg Image:hpim1363.jpg Image:hpim1306.jpg

Moldova's foreign relations with NATO member states

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Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

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Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

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References

External links

NATO’s relations with the Republic of Moldova

The Republic of Moldova: Internal Challenges; Prospects for Euro-Atlantic Integration

Site-ul oficial al Centrului NATO in Moldova - https://web.archive.org/web/20090330163447/http://www.nato.md/

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moldova-NATO relations Foreign relations of Moldova NATO relations Politics of Moldova