Moldova and France will sign a defence cooperation accord on Thursday as part of the West’s efforts to strengthen the former Soviet state’s capabilities amid what they fear are increasing efforts by Russia to destabilise Moldova.
Moldova, a western neighbour of Ukraine, has a tiny defence budget and has long had tense relations with Moscow, which have worsened as Chisinau backs Ukraine in the war against Russia.
Russia has troops and peacekeepers based in Transdniestria, a breakaway statelet of Moldova that has maintained its autonomy for three decades with the Kremlin’s support.
The French presidency said in a statement on Wednesday that defence and economic cooperation accords would be signed when President Emmanuel Macron meets his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu in Paris.
He would underline his “support for the independence, sovereignty and security of the Republic of Moldova, in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” it said.
If the Moldovan government were to ignore the rule of the law and the democratic process wouldn’t they be as bad as the Russian government? In trying to avoid becoming part of an authoritarian regime they’d become one anyway.
If it was imposed undemocratically then it already has absolutely no meaning or purpose, and if the country who imposed it to abuse it to actually swallow you again then it simply becomes a matter of survival. So you can either get rid of it and defend your actual democratic principles, or become part of fascist Russia and throw those principles away anyway.