Poland's Andrzej Duda and Moldova's Maia Sandu held talks at Warsaw’s Belweder Palace on Wednesday morning, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Marcin Przydacz, the Polish president’s top foreign-policy aide, told reporters that the meeting focused on “security issues, Moldova’s economic, social, political and energy situation, and its path towards accession to the EU.”
Przydacz said that as "a non-member of NATO and the EU, Moldova has been subjected to various external pressures.”
He added that Moldova’s province of Transnistria "is a pro-Russian, breakaway region, with Russian troops on the ground," which he said "is a destabilising factor for Moldova’s internal situation.”
'Poland plays a stabilising role in the region'
Przydacz told reporters: “Moldova has a lot of problems, including economic, energy problems. Poland has repeatedly lent its support to Chișinău in this respect, providing energy support last year, for instance.”
"This demonstrates that Poland plays a stabilising role in the region and the fact that President Maia Sandu comes to Poland seeking political and policy support in solving these crises is obvious proof of that," Przydacz said.
He noted that Moldova had been granted EU candidate status and "must therefore introduce various reforms."
“We are keeping our fingers crossed that it will happen and we are also providing policy support,” Przydacz said.
'Propaganda, cyberattacks, false bomb alerts'
At last week’s Munich Security Conference, Moldova’s Sandu warned about the potential “destabilisation of the situation" in her country.
Sandu said Moldova was the target of “propaganda, cyberattacks and false bomb alerts,” which undermined democracy, the PAP news agency reported.
During Russian strikes on Ukraine on February 16, a Russian missile entered Moldovan airspace, according to news outlets.
The debris was found near the border with Ukraine in the village of Larga, the Reuters news agency reported.
It was at least the fourth time since November that missile debris had been found in Moldova since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago, according to Reuters.
Last week, Sandu asked parliament to increase the powers of Moldova’s security services, according to news reports.
She warned that Russia had plans to stage a coup in Moldova, involving attacks by armed groups on government buildings and the taking of hostages, the PAP news agency reported.
Wednesday is day 364 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, forsal.pl