CHISINAU, March 19. /TASS/. Former Moldovan President, leader of the Party of Socialists, Igor Dodon has voiced concern over the ongoing process of the arming of the republic amid an economic crisis and peace initiatives on Ukraine.
"While presidents [of Russia Vladimir] Putin and [of the US Donald] Trump make steps toward stopping the war in Ukraine and restoring peace in the region, [President of Moldova] Maia Sandu militarizes the neutral Moldova with the help and at the behest of Brussels," he wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on the new shipment of arms with the value of 40 million euros, which the EU authorized for the country. According to him, the protesting railway workers could have been paid with this money, the farmers going through a crisis could have received support, and the process of schools, which are experiencing a funding gap, being closed could have been stopped.
According to the Moldovan media, the European Union has decided to deploy armored personnel carriers and air defense systems in Moldova. The ex-president said that Sandu and the current government "have agreed to follow the militant line of some European leaders and engage in a direct confrontation with the US administration."
Earlier, the Moldovan parliament has endorsed the national security policy proposed by Sandu, in which Russia is referred to as the main threat. The opposition criticized the document and voted against it. The policy notes that Moldova will strengthen the cooperation in this field with NATO and EU member states. The authors of the policy noted that Moldova needs modern, well-equipped, and prepared armed forces, which are highly compatible with the armies of the Western countries. For this reason, the republic’s authorities increased the military budget by 68%, with it reaching 1.5 billion lei ($89 million). The United States, the EU, and NATO intensified their supplies of arms and military equipment to the republic.
Moldova’s militarization led to the concerns of the authorities of the bordering unrecognized Transnistria and the Gagauz autonomy. Tiraspol is also concerned with NATO military exercises near the security separation zone guarded by Russian peacekeepers becoming more frequent.