{"id":443404,"date":"2017-02-07T22:15:46","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=443404"},"modified":"2017-02-07T22:20:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:20:51","slug":"igor-dodon-still-insists-not-opening-nato-liaison-office-moldova-meeting-deputy-secretary-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/igor-dodon-still-insists-not-opening-nato-liaison-office-moldova-meeting-deputy-secretary-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Igor Dodon still insists on not opening a NATO liaison office in Moldova after meeting the Deputy Secretary General"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

On February 7th, the Moldovan President, Igor Dodon, had a meeting with the Deputy Secretary General of the NATO, Rose Gottemoeller, to discuss the opening of the NATO liaison office<\/a> in Chi\u0219in\u0103u.<\/p>\n

Secretary Gottemoeller tried to convince that NATO respects the sovereignty of all nations,\u00a0the right of every nation to set<\/em>\u00a0its own\u00a0course, to choose its own alliances or to choose not to align\u00a0with anyone,\u00a0<\/em>and emphasized that the Alliance fully respects Moldova’s constitutional neutrality. Gottemoeller appreciated Moldova’s contribution to NATO’s peace-keeping mission KFOR in Kosovo.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the NATO official took the time to describe all the benefits and opportunities the Moldovan state gets from its Partnership: civilian and military personnel training to fight corruption in the defense sector, degrees of\u00a0military education for Moldovans, the destroying of toxic pesticides, anti-personnel mines, munitions and rocket fuel, as well as training in border security, logistics, emergency planning and cyber defense.<\/p>\n

The Secretary reiterated the mission of the liaison office:<\/p>\n

“This year, a\u00a0new NATO Liaison Office will open in Chisinau.\u00a0 This is not a military base, but a small diplomatic mission staffed only by civilians.\u00a0 There will be no NATO troops in Moldova.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Office will facilitate our support for Moldova\u2019s ongoing reforms. It will also increase transparency about what NATO is and what it does with Moldova, which we think will be very interesting and we hope also beneficial to the Moldovan public.”<\/em><\/p>\n

President Dodon did not seem to agree on opening the NATO office in Moldova, saying that it would create difficulties in the negotiations on Transnistrian conflict settlement. What he appreciated was NATO’s support in, quote,\u00a0“clearing the pesticides stock, and others”.<\/em><\/p>\n

Claiming that the journalists are so-called impartial<\/em>, Dodon avoided a question on Moldova’s questionable neutrality status with Russian troops illegally stationed on its territory (Transnistria).<\/p>\n