Moldovan parliament speaker favors creating air defense shield in country

CHISINAU. Oct 18 (Interfax) - Moldovan Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu has spoken in favor of building an air defense shield in the country.

"Protecting the country's territory and protecting its airspace does not contravene the neutrality status of Moldova in any way," Grosu said at a joint press conference with Speaker of the Czech Parliament's Chamber of Deputies Marketa Pekarova Adamova in Chisinau on Tuesday.

"We need not only systems that will allow us to track airspace trespassers, but also systems that will be able to suppress such attempts," he said.

Grosu, however, did not say how much purchasing modern air defense systems is going to cost.

"It is up to the military to do all necessary calculations," but air defense systems "will cost a great deal", he said, adding that European Union countries have promised to help Moldova strengthen its defense capabilities.

In late July of this year, the European Union's Council endorsed a decision to disburse 40 million euros through the European Peace Facility in assistance to the Moldovan army. Prior to that, in December 21, a decision was adopted to provide seven million euros to enhance "the capacities of the Military Medical Service and engineering battalion of the Armed Forces". This money will be used to develop the country's system of protection from cyberattacks, to buy drones, non-lethal weapons, etc. Furthermore, the United States said in early September that it had allocated $2 billion for army needs, of which $1 billion would be provided to Ukraine and the other $1 billion would be distributed among 17 countries, including Moldova.