CHISINAU (Reuters) – Moldovan President Maia Sandu signed a proper utility for her nation to affix the European Union on Thursday, charting a pro-Western course hastened by Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
Sandu’s transfer comes days after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a request for fast EU membership because it battles invading Russian forces.
Moscow is fiercely against the jap growth of each the EU and particularly of NATO, which it sees as a direct risk to its personal nationwide safety.
Sandu, the prime minister and the parliamentary speaker all signed the doc throughout a briefing within the capital Chisinau, the place pro-Russian and pro-EU politicians have vied for management since Moldova gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
“It took 30 years for Moldova to achieve maturity, however in the present day the nation is able to take duty for its personal future,” stated Sandu, earlier than holding up the signed doc to the tv cameras.
“We need to dwell in peace, prosperity, be a part of the free world. While some choices take time, others have to be made shortly and decisively, and profiting from the alternatives that include a altering world,” she stated.
The utility might be despatched to Brussels within the coming days, she stated.
Negotiations to affix the EU – which each Chisinau and Kyiv haven’t even begun – sometimes take a few years because the candidate nation aligns its laws with that of the 27-nation bloc.
EU leaders might talk about Ukraine’s request at an off-the-cuff summit subsequent month, diplomats stated.
(Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Toby Chopra and Gareth Jones)
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