Moldovan defence minister sworn in office

Chisinau, 24 October /MOLDPRES/ - New Defence Minister Eugen Sturza took the oath of allegiance today. Attending the event were Prime Minister Pavel Filip and acting President of Moldova, Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, who signed the decree on the minister’s appointment to office, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.     
Prime Minister Pavel Filip congratulated Eugen Sturza on his swearing in office. Filip said that the mandate of the new defence minister was a complex one and important for completing the working out and promotion of the new defence strategy, as well as for carrying out the reform of the National Army.     
“I am happy that an end was put to an incertitude which lasted too much in Moldova and that the Defence Minister has a head today. My stance is that Moldova is a neutral country. At the same time, the neutrality does not mean isolation. In continuation, we should give our servicemen possibility to be well-trained and to have a professional and well-organized army,” Pavel Filip said.   
For his part, acting President, Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu said the country needs functional authorities and that he hoped that such situations of institutional blockage would no longer repeat. “The Filip government has every support of the parliamentary majority and you, certainly, Mr. Minister, have every support as well. You are a legitimate and legal minister and head of the Defence Ministry,” Andrian Candu said.  
The new defence minister thanked for the confidence provided, noting that the concerns of his mandate would be the army’s modernization and professionalization, endowment with equipment and weaponry, completion with effective strength and its training, as well as the improvement of the social conditions of the military. Thus, Moldova is to turn from a consumer of security into its provider.   
“It is very important that the National Army is not involved in political games, as there is the risk to weaken it even more. The supreme commander of the army is the people and the servicemen’s duty is to serve the Motherland and its citizens,” Eugen Sturza said.