German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday gave a positive assessment of the support Moldova is receiving in fending off Russian hybrid attacks and promised further assistance.
“With our help, Moldova was able to stabilize its economy, resist Russia’s hybrid attacks and bring inflation under control,” Baerbock said at the 5th Support Conference for Moldova, held in the capital Chișinău.
“And we will not stop; we will continue to support Moldova in very concrete ways,” she added.
Baerbock criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he wanted to throw Moldova into chaos and cut off gas supplies to the country.
Given the collapse of imports from Russia, this meant that Moldova’s economy collapsed and inflation rose to almost 30%, she said.
Putin is also fueling tensions with pro-Russian separatists in Moldova, Baerbock said. “But instead of chaos and collapse, Putin has achieved the opposite in Moldova: the country has moved closer to the European Union.”
Moldova is divided into pro-European and pro-Russian forces.
Like Ukraine, Moldova has been a candidate for EU membership since 2022.
On October 20, at the same time as the presidential elections, a referendum will be held to decide whether EU membership should be enshrined as a goal in the constitution.
Germany, France and Romania launched the Moldova Support Platform in April 2022.
The talks will continue on Tuesday and will focus on Moldova’s economic development, energy security and judicial reform.
To make Moldova more resilient to Russian influence, a bilateral agreement on cybersecurity cooperation is also planned, despite Moldova’s accusations that Moscow is behind destabilization and disinformation campaigns.
