A technical conference to prepare the Moldova Support Platform (MSP) was held today in Chisinau and attended by the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the corps of ambassadors and diplomats accredited in Chisinau and representatives of international organisations. Strengthening the capacities of the internal affairs system for more secure borders and enhanced services to protect citizens through external assistance programmes were discussed.
Thus, the MIA’s officials, diplomats and foreign officials informed each other on the coordination of external support and its implementation within the internal affairs system to strengthen security and public order capacities, within the framework of the Moldova Support Platform (MSP), an event to be held in Chisinau on October 17th this year.
During the meeting, Minister of Internal Affairs Adrian Efros stated that, ‘MSP is the platform to address urgent needs to sustainably support Moldova’s development in the areas such as economy, infrastructure and security; for internal affairs this means developing key priorities, which you already know. It is about strengthening the frontline response, fortifying borders and coordinating security measures, ensuring secure communications and extending the communications network of the entire national security system as well as ensuring the secure operation of territorial units.’
U.S. Ambassador, Kent D. Logsdon, welcomed the priorities set and reconfirmed the support, including further assistance to the Border and National Police with cars, forensics and radiation detection.
Ambassador of the European Union, Janis Mažeiks, recalled during the meeting that half of the external assistance received by the MIA in the last 9 months is the result of various projects supported by the European Union. Representative of the European Investment Bank in the Republic of Moldova, Alberto Carlei encouraged the MIA to apply for as many grants as possible to strengthen its capabilities.
Openness for support from all European Union member countries, the U.S., other European countries and international organisations is announced in order to enhance the capabilities of the internal affairs system.
A budget of €21 million has already been gathered just this year from 19 external assistance projects and from the donor support package, aimed at strengthening the areas of activity associated with the MIA. These contributions are the result of the last MSP conference held in Paris 9 months ago.
The contribution of the partners supports the MIA in ensuring progress in the development projects focused on Moldova and provides sustainable support to the implementation of the development strategy of the internal affairs system and the development of the sectoral programmes undertaken.
The conclusions of today’s meeting show that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and, therefore, the security component is ready to correctly and fully inform the MSP on the need for intervention of external partners in the field of security and public order. Additional data that can help traditional partners in supporting Moldova will be reported dynamically to be up to date at the time of the MSP conference on October 17th.
The purpose of today’s meeting with the 28 diplomats, representatives of embassies and international organisations was to calibrate the supporting technical data in order to properly inform the decision-makers who will be present at the October event in Chisinau.
The MSP is an international instrument created at the initiative of the EU Member States and the US to coordinate external support for the strengthening of the Republic of Moldova’s capacities.The success achieved through the MSP demonstrate once again that together we are even stronger!
