A week after the call from Transnistrian separatists for the “protection” of Moscow, which maintains 1,500 soldiers in this region bordering Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Maia Sandu called in a joint statement on Russia to “withdraw its forces illegally stationed on Moldovan territory.
Paris said it was ready to “make its contribution, when the time comes, to a lasting and peaceful settlement of this conflict” frozen since 1992, at the time of the dislocation of the Soviet Union.
“The Moscow regime is trying to control my country,” says Moldova
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reignited tensions in this strip of land of just over 4,000 km², as well as in Moldova, “facing an intensification of hybrid attacks” according to the press release. Chisinau particularly fears a surge in disinformation in the run-up to the presidential election and the referendum on EU membership scheduled for the fall.
“The Moscow regime is trying to control my country through energy blackmail, organizing demonstrations, carrying out cyberattacks (…) and even plotting a coup,” Maia Sandu said during a press conference with Emmanuel Macron. Faced with these “attempts at interference which aim to very clearly divide Moldovan society (…) France and the European Union stand at your side”, replied the French president.
An agreement signed between France and Moldova
“The Moldovan people can be proud of their peaceful fight for freedom” which “represents a challenge for Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” he insisted.
The agreement signed immediately by the defense ministers of the two states provides in particular for “the opening in the coming months of a permanent defense mission in Chisinau”, he specified, adding that “it This is just a first step.”
In the economic field, the two countries also initialed “a bilateral road map identifying future projects to be developed together”.