Countries

Moldova wants to join EU as soon as possible

As protection against a threat from Russia

Redazione Ansa

(ANSA-AFP) - REYKJAVIK, MAY 18 - Moldova wants EU membership "as soon as possible" as protection against a threat from Russia and hopes for a decision to start negotiations "in the next months," President Maia Sandu told AFP in an interview. The small nation of 2.6 million people, nestled between EU neighbour Romania and war-ravaged Ukraine, will on June 1 hold its first major summit of wider Europe. That gathering of the European Political Community -- a forum created last year that brings together leaders of all 27 EU countries with 20 neighbours of the bloc -- will be an occasion for Moldova to burnish its candidate credentials. For Sandu, EU membership is the only guarantee against becoming Russia's next target. Her country, a former Soviet republic, already has a breakaway region, Transnistria, where Russia has stationed a small number of troops. (ANSA-AFP).

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