Moldova FM on military spending

Anatolie Nosatîi, Moldova Foreign Minister spoke to CGTN Europe from Munich Security Conference.

Transcript

00:00 Yes, we are working on this and the government took very concrete measures for the last period

00:07 of time so the budget was increased.

00:09 But you know it's not about the budget because you cannot do reform specifically in the military

00:15 area just with money.

00:17 You need time, you need personnel, you need equipment and this cannot be done in one year.

00:23 You need to do this in several years with major, major investments.

00:29 Given the situation in Ukraine, do you think Moldova would abandon its neutral status and

00:35 join NATO someday?

00:37 This is quite a difficult question.

00:39 It's not about what I think, it's more important what people would like to because according

00:44 to the neutrality status of Moldova it's written in the constitution.

00:49 In order to change the constitution we need to go through the referendum to ask the people

00:54 what they think about.

00:56 What's the sentiment now in Moldova?

01:02 There is a divided opinion.

01:05 And this is not because of just people's belief but it's more about the influence of the propaganda

01:13 and the influence on our society.

01:17 One of the major targets of the Russian Federation is still to have influence based on the national

01:26 and the false narrative that neutrality is enough and you don't need to invest in your

01:33 defence.

01:34 However, we see the results for example.

01:35 Ukraine was a neutral country as well and the Russian Federation was the country who

01:41 invaded it.