From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.europeaninternet.com/russia/news.php3?id=379938§ion=CIS Moldovan President Rules out Joining NATO MOSCOW, Apr 17, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Moldova's new communist president ruled out Tuesday the possibility of his impoverished former Soviet republic joining NATO or any other military organization. "In accordance with the Moldovan constitution we are a neutral state and in these conditions the question of joining NATO or another military organization does not arise," Voronin told a press conference here on the second day of an official visit. Two weeks ago the Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase indicated that his country wanted to become a NATO "bastion" in southeast Europe from 2002. Moldova, a largely Romanian-speaking nation, in 1994 joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program, a loose contact group reaching out to former Warsaw Pact states and often seen as a waiting-room for full alliance membership. Voronin's election as president on April 4 made Moldova the first former Soviet republic to return a communist to the post of head of state since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse) _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
