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Moldovan president calls against opening NATO Liaison Office in Chisinau

In late November 2016, Moldova’s prime minister and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg signed an agreement on opening a NATO Liaison Office in Chisinau

CHISINAU, March 30. /TASS/. NATO’s leadership should give up its plans on opening a Liaison Office in Chisinau scheduled for this summer, Moldovan President Igor Dodon told TASS on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels. Stoltenberg announced that the Liaison Office would be opened "soon."

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Moldova's leader plans to cancel agreement on establishing NATO Liaison Office in Chisinau

In comments to these words, Dodon said: "Moldova is a neutral state and we don’t need NATO’s Liaison Office." "If it opens, then I, as the head of state and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, will seek its closure." Dodon noted that he views the plans to open the office as a "challenge to the Moldovan society."

During his visit to Brussels, Dodon asked NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller to refrain from opening the Liaison Office in the Moldovan capital. In February, the president refused to send a Moldovan contingent to NATO Platinum Eagle drills in Romania.

In late November 2016, Moldova’s prime minister and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg signed an agreement on opening a NATO Liaison Office in Chisinau, which was ratified by the Moldovan parliament but before Igor Dodon took the presidential office.

According to the Moldovan Constitution, the country is neutral, and polls say that the majority of its citizens oppose NATO membership. Since 1994, Moldova has been cooperating with NATO according to an individual partnership plan, and a NATO information center was set up in Chisinau.

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