International

The Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Romania: We support the capabilities of the Republic of Moldova to resist Russian threats

The United Kingdom supports the capabilities of the Republic of Moldova to resist Russian threats, but also the peaceful reintegration of the transnistrian region, said the new British ambassador in Bucharest, Giles Portman, in an interview for Agerpres.

"As for the Republic of Moldova, we firmly support its capabilities in terms of resisting Russian threats. I would say two things. First of all there is, of course, a Russian presence in the transnistrian region. It is a presence that is contrary to international law. So Russian troops and the Russian presence should leave the transnistrian region. And the second thing I would say is that we support the full peaceful reintegration of the transnistrian region into the Republic of Moldova. But this has to be an internal discussion. Both sides need to engage diplomatically and in good faith and reach a solution to this. It must be an internal solution, but of course we support it externally", declared the ambassador.

The diplomat, who previously headed the East StratCom Task Force, a unit of the EU's External Action Service that combats disinformation spread by Russia, was also asked how big he thought the danger of Russian disinformation campaigns was in 2024, which is an election year in many states.

"I think the lesson of the last few years is that we were right to be concerned and we were right to call attention to Russian disinformation. And this is just as true now. We all just have to be aware of this in this extremely important year for the elections in Romania, in Great Britain, in the United States, in many other countries", said the British ambassador in Bucharest, Giles Portman.

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