ISTANBUL 

Most Moldovans do not support the idea of the country abandoning its neutrality and joining NATO, President Maia Sandu said Tuesday.

“If we look at opinion polls today, we will see that there is no serious support for the idea of abandoning neutrality. We can discuss a lot about the reasons for this perception,” Sandu said during an interview with the PRO TV channel in response to a question on what should happen for Moldova to apply for NATO membership.

Sandu said that in the case of Finland, the vast majority of the population thought it was best to rely on the country’s own defense system until the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, when a scare emerged and people decided it was no longer enough to defend themselves with their own system.

“We rely on what citizens think and what citizens want, even if sometimes this decision is influenced by misinformation and propaganda,” Sandu further said, noting that Moldovans must show the desire to join NATO because this means changing the country’s constitution, which requires a vote by the majority of the people.

Sandu also said there is a “fear of NATO” among Moldovans, which she said is the result of “years of propaganda by the Russian Federation” conveying the message that “neutrality means you cannot defend yourself.”

"Neutrality means that you defend yourself, that you cannot count on anyone. You cannot count on other countries, as is the case with NATO. Then you must have a very strong defense system.

“We have to fight disinformation and we have to fight Russian propaganda. And yes, we will take some actions in the near future so that we have much more coherent and much more serious actions at the state level to combat Russian propaganda, including on this subject," she said.

She added that Chisinau will work to create a special structure aside from the country’s Supreme Security Council which will aim to combat propaganda and disinformation.

Moldova is constitutionally bound to a policy of neutrality, due to which it has not applied for NATO membership or to join the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).​​