The leaders of France, Germany and Poland arrived in Moldova on Wednesday in a show of support, a month ahead of tense parliamentary election amid claims of Russian interference.
The EU candidate member which borders Ukraine and Romania is led by pro-Western President Maia Sandu who met France’s Emmanuel Macron, Poland’s Donald Tusk and Germany’s Friedrich Merz in the Moldovan capital on its independence day.
Standing alongside Sandu in her office building in Chisinau on Wednesday, Macron, Merz and Tusk all praised Moldova’s resilience in the face of what Moldova’s leaders and and Western allies say is a campaign of meddling from Moscow.
The country of 2.5 million which is dominated by Romanian speakers has seen pro-Western and pro-Russian political groups alternate for decades. It made its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russia has troops stationed in a largely Russian-speaking region that broke away from Chisinau’s control in a brief war in the early 1990s.
Moldova applied to join the European Union at the same time as Ukraine applied, days after Russia launched its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Moldovans voted narrowly in favor of pursuing EU integration in a referendum last year. But Sandu’s anti-EU opponents are mounting a strong challenge ahead of the Sept. 28 parliamentary vote
