Moldovan defense minister goes to Bucharest: meeting with Romanian counterpart, signing of military cooperation agreement

Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii will pay a visit to Romania, where he will meet his counterpart, Stefan-Radu Oprea. The two officials are expected to sign a military cooperation agreement. The discussions will also address the possibility of jointly purchasing Italian military vehicles through the European SAFE programme, the minister said at the Shadow Cabinet programme, aired on JurnalTV channel.

Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii said that Italian Defence Vehicles (IDV) were needed to replace the outdated equipment inherited from the Soviet period and to equip the National Army.

“In the country’s interest and in the interest of our servicemen, we will sign an agreement to access the SAFE programme, under which we will make joint purchases with the Romanian Army of military vehicles produced by the Italian defense industry—specifically, IDVs, or Italian Defence Vehicles. These are trucks that we want to have in the equipment of the National Army, in order to replace the old models inherited from the Soviet Army and place them at the disposal of the National Army for training purposes,” the minister said.

Nosatii said he would provide more details after meeting with Romania’s new defense minister.

Another priority of the Defense Ministry is developing defense capabilities against Russian drones, which pose a threat to the security of Moldova.

“For me, it is important to identify the systems we need, so that we can defend ourselves against Russian drones. This is the main mission because, when we talk about the measures taken, it is clear that we have become better at detecting threats in the airspace, but not good enough. Now, we need systems to protect ourselves and shoot them down,” the minister said.

The official said that the National Army had anti-drone machine guns, but their range is limited and they are ineffective against modern drones powered by jet engines.

“Just imagine—the machine gun has a rather short range. This means that every 2–3 kilometers we would have to deploy more machine guns along 1,222 kilometers. This is our border with Ukraine, and we would have to wait for Russian drones to come and attack citizens’ homes. Their range is very limited, and they are effective only against first-generation drones. They cannot deal with jet-propelled drones,” Nosatii said.

Moldova and Romania are discussing the expansion of defense cooperation, including through the development of joint anti-drone programmes and the exchange of security technologies. During his first foreign visit to Chisinau, Romanian Prime Minister Luca Niculescu said that talks were underway to strengthen cooperation in the field of defense, so that citizens would be protected regardless of where they are.