Moldovan President Maia Sandu reaffirmed Tuesday in Lisbon the call for the West to maintain support for Ukraine, emphasizing that Ukrainian soldiers also defend Moldova.
“By helping Ukraine, they are helping Moldova,” Sandu said at a joint press conference with his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, after a meeting at the Belém Palace.
According to Sandu, Moldova is safe today thanks to the resilience of Ukrainian soldiers and the Ukrainian people.
Maia Sandu today began a two-day visit to Portugal, the first by a President of the Republic of Moldova, born at the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The small country with about 2.5 million inhabitants, located between Romania and Ukraine, is very close to one of the (southern) fronts of the war that Russia started on February 24, 2022.
Russia has a contingent of 1,500 soldiers in Transnistria, a separatist region in eastern Moldova bordering Ukraine.
Maia Sandu and other leaders of Moldova, a candidate country for the European Union (EU), have urged calls for Western allies to maintain support for Ukraine.
The United States, Kiev’s biggest donor, has had an emergency budget law in place since Sunday that excludes aid to Ukraine.
The law is valid for 45 days and was passed to prevent the US government from becoming paralyzed.
Also on Sunday, Slovakia elected a new prime minister, Robert Fico, who is opposed to Ukraine’s financing and who could join Hungarian leader Vitkor Orbán in his fight against Kiev within the EU.
“Please continue to support Ukraine,” Sandu emphasized after the meeting with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Sandu thanked Portugal’s support for Moldova’s accession to the EU, reaffirmed by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and believed that the country’s entry into the bloc “will also be a victory for Europe”.
‘In a world where Russia threatens its neighbors with military force or hybrid warfare, expansion [da UE] It is an investment in collective security,” he said.
Sandu said he hopes the December European Council will approve the start of negotiations with Moldova, which was granted candidate country status in June 2022, three months after formalizing its membership application.
“It would be a message that democracy, economic improvement and peace will triumph over authoritarianism, intimidation and threats,” he said, referring to Russia.
Sandu believed that a “stable, strong and democratic” Moldova will contribute to strengthening security in the region.
“It’s not just about Moldova. (…) It is about a shared vision of a more stable, secure and prosperous European continent,” he said.
He said Moldova has made efforts to fulfill the obligations inherent in membership, emphasizing the reform of the judicial system and the fight against corruption.
“I think we’ve made good progress,” he said.
Sandu was confident that the European Commission “will present a positive report” at the end of October, which “will lead to a positive decision” by the European Council.
“We have publicly promised that we will be ready for EU integration by 2030 and we are working hard to deliver on that promise,” he assured.
Maia Sandu also called for more Portuguese companies to join the twenty already established in Moldova, especially in the wine and renewable energy sectors.
“This will benefit the economic growth of both countries,” he added.
Source: DN
