Nicu Popescu: Moldova will decide whether to accept NATO weapons | Dodon is not on trial for treason
Visiting Prague, Moldovan Foreign Minister spoke in interview with journalist Ray Furlongin Free Europe, about the government’s talks on accepting Western offers to arm Moldova with lethal weapons to NATO standards, about the impact of the arrest of Igor Dodon on Chisinau’s relationship with Moscow, about the appointment of his godfather as ambassador to Greece.
The government is discussing and must decide “soon” whether to accept lethal NATO weapons
RayFurlong: Our meeting is taking place while Ukraine is at war. The Moldovan president said Moldova lacks basic military equipment and there are doubts about its ability to defend itself if needed. At the same time, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss recently said that talks were under way on the supply of NATO military equipment and lethal weapons to Moldova. Will the Moldovan government accept NATO lethal weapons?
Nicu Popescu: Moldova is a neutral country and has been a neutral country since 1994, according to its Constitution. If we do not look at the military spending of the last 30 years, we see that there is a significant shortage of investment in the defense sector. We spend about 0.4 of the Gross Domestic Product, which is quite small anyway. The army was not taken care of. At the same time, neutral countries must be able to defend themselves, not isolate themselves. So we cooperate with international partners, with NATO, with the European Union, with EU member states in the defense sector. We would like to be more active in this peacekeeping operation.
Nicu Popescu: We are talking on the inside, but not in concrete terms at this stage about lethal weapons.
Our entire cooperation with partners is transparent. With NATO, we have an Individual Partnership Action Plan, which has been updated for the last 15 years or so. We adopted the latest version of this plan a few months ago, and it’s public. All cooperation with NATO is public, and this stage does not include lethal weapons. At the same time, we in Moldova understand that we need to ensure our ability to secure our own security, so there is a discussion within countries about the next steps, how not to adapt to a more threatening geopolitical environment, but we do not discuss in terms concrete at this stage about supplies of lethal weapons.
Ray Furlong: So, bottom line is that we’re not going to take them.
Nicu Popescu: It doesn’t matter if we take them or not. As I said, we are discussing on the inside what is the best way to continue to strengthen Moldova’s security. It is a conversation that is taking place right now, in these days and weeks, between the army, the political class, the deputies, the president you quoted, the government. Once we decide how not to move forward, we will also publicly communicate our intentions and plans.
Ray Furlong: Opposition members of the Moscow-Kremlin opposition said they were opposed to accepting NATO weapons and that this would jeopardize Moldova’s neutral status.
Nicu Popescu: Neutrality, as I said, does not imply self-isolation, it does not imply demilitarization. Neutral states must be able to defend themselves. You have to have an army and equipment to work. One does not exclude the other. If we have neutrality, we must have the ability to defend ourselves. This is ours, and today we are trying to understand how we cannot adapt the security policy and the defense of the current, much more worrying and negative context, which was designed and made worse by the Russian agreement in Ukraine.
Ray Furlong: In other words, is it not true that accepting weapons will compromise neutrality?
Nicu Popescu: I say that we are now examining our options for moving forward as a political class and a parliamentary majority.
Ray Furlong: What do you think?
Nicu Popescu: It doesn’t matter, it matters what it thinks governs Moldova, and the government has not yet reached a conclusion that can be publicly communicated at this stage about what we will do with our security policies. But this discussion will certainly not last forever. These are decisions that must be made soon, when we have more to say, we will be happy to report how we see the next steps in this direction.
Igor Dodon is not being investigated for treason, Moscow’s warnings do not frighten us
Ray Furlong: In recent days, we have witnessed the arrest by police of former President Igor Dodon. How can this be explained by the fact that Dodon is a well-known pro-Moscow politician, and prosecutors are investigating him for several things, including treason. So how do we understand the choice of time?
Nicu Popescu: It has nothing to do with geopolitical events, with the current context [arestarea lui Igor Dodon]. It has only to do with the fact that Moldovan society has elected President Maia Sandu and the parliamentary majority that voted for the current government to fight corruption, to reduce it, when it starts from the top – from fighting corruption among the political class, among . oligarchs.
Such events have been going on for several months, the case you mentioned is not the only one. We had a few charges, we demand the extradition of some oligarchs who stole a lot of money from Moldova and he fled with them to other countries. We are reforming our justice sector.
Just a few weeks ago, we passed a new law on pre-checking judges and prosecutors, which will now go through some filters. We have invited reputable international experts in the field of justice, who will not help to clean up the system of corrupt judges and prosecutors. In the near future, we will appoint a former federal prosecutor from the United States to head our Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
So we have a strong mandate to fight corruption and we will fight it, it will fight it, the prosecutors will fight.
Ray Furlong: You’re talking about corruption, but Dodon is still being investigated for treason, isn’t he?
Nicu Popescu: Not. He is being investigated for corruption.
Ray Furlong: For betrayal right?
Nicu Popescu: Not for betrayal. A minister does not have to comment on ongoing cases, but he is linked to corruption. find, by searching on Google on YouTube, a recording of the former president receiving a bag from an oligarch in Moldova, while talking about the fact that there is money in the bag and that some of it will be spent for the party. Anyone can see the record in which this former president receives from a oligarch a bag that is supposed to be money. This is the starting point of the investigation.
Nicu Popescu: We do not believe that it is the role of other states to comment on our fight against corruption.
Ray Furlong: Moscow has warned against resorting to “settlements of accounts” with political opponents. How worried are you about such language?
Nicu Popescu: We are guided by the political mandate of anti-corruption societies. I do not think it is the role of other states to comment against corruption, we have a mandate from society to fight it and we do not find such statements to be useful, relevant or correct.
Ray Furlong: But do you find them worrying, intimidating?
Nicu Popescu: I did not call them intimidating, but I do not think they are sure that Moscow is good to do. If you do not ask about the general context, what is happening in our region, then, yes, we are worried about the war in Ukraine and many other things, but not this statement.
Andrei Popov’s “right” to an uninterrupted diplomatic career
Ray Furlong: You talked about the fight against corruption, and the government you belong to was elected with promises of anti-corruption and anti-nepotism. There is currently controversy in Moldova over the number of the future ambassador to Greece, who is a career diplomat, but is also your godfather. This link is embarrassing, is it a problem?
Nicu Popescu: He is a high-ranking diplomat, he has been Deputy Foreign Minister for many years, he has been Ambassador to Austria and the OSCE, he is a diplomat with a chosen reputation, he has been more than an Ambassador, he has also been Deputy Foreign Minister, he has adequate qualifications and the right to be appointed to a diplomatic post, as ambassador to Greece, has proven throughout his career that he can be an ambassador before he is a deputy foreign minister, just as an ambassador to Greece can go.
Nicu Popescu: Doesn’t a diplomat have the right to an uninterrupted career just because someone like me has been appointed as a minister?
Ray Furlong: But this is a good idea for a government that says, “Shall we eradicate nepotism?”
Nicu Popescu: The opposite alternative is the principle of meritocracy. Doesn’t a diplomat who has spent his whole life in foreign policy, who was a deputy foreign minister, has the right to continue in the diplomatic service just because the political context has changed, and he has been appointed as me as a minister. ? We also have this right, of someone who is a diplomat, a respected diplomat, a former ambassador, a former deputy minister, to continue his career uninterruptedly. I think it is a reasonable right of a person to have the opportunity to pursue a career as a diplomat.
Ray Furlong: Thank you.
Nicu Popescu: Thanks.