https://asiatimes.com/2024/04/us-troops-in-moldova-in-emerging-plan-b-for-ukraine/US troops in Moldova in emerging Plan B for Ukraine
By Stephen Bryen, April 5th 2024
Edited - full article here (
https://asiatimes.com/2024/04/us-troops-in-moldova-in-emerging-plan-b-for-ukraine/)
Big trouble may be brewing in little Moldova as it could be envisioned as staging area for US and NATO forces in the event of a Russian victory and break up of Ukraine.
US troops are now in Moldova with Romanians, ostensibly for a military exercise called JCET 2024 (Joint Command Exchange Training). The exercise started on April 1st and will continue until April 19th.
According to a Moldovan Ministry of Defense statement,
“The aim of the exercise is joint training and exchange of experience between Moldovan, Romanian and American special forces, as well as to increase the level of interoperability between the participating contingents. This year’s event will also be attended by representatives of the [Moldovan] State Protection and Security Service and the Pantera Special Forces.”
The US sponsors what it calls the Moldova-US Strategic Dialogue in Chisinau. The dialogue focuses on areas of
cooperation including justice sector and anti-corruption reforms, human rights, promoting a pluralistic media environment and rights-respecting media policies to counter disinformation, energy diversification and resilience, defense modernization and transformation, civil protection, border management, cyber security, countering cross-border threats, combating illicit trafficking in weapons and ammunition, countering proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and related materials, humanely addressing the needs of refugees and expanding people-to-people ties.
The United States has made nearly US$320 million available in new economic, security, and humanitarian assistance to help Moldova.
The purpose of the State Protection and Security Service, which is separate from the Moldovan army, is to protect high government officials.
Officially, Moldova is supposed to be a neutral country. There is talk of changing its constitution to allow it to join military alliances and, potentially, to join NATO.
Joint training with foreign countries (the US and Romania) would appear to violate current constitutional neutrality provisions.
Romania is keen on building up its military relationship with Moldova. Legislation is pending in Romania (
https://substack.com/redirect/25207c98-606b-4047-9e1c-c5d6476fb5f9?j=eyJ1IjoiNTQ1NTUifQ.qYFYx5kfGiWo9cjGcAInbSEGFimskGW0kn2G2WyOBFw)to allow it to intervene outside the country.
Such actions would not be limited to the military but might also involve other types of interventions to counter hybrid threats.
The focus of the new law is Moldova and Ukraine.
Romania supplies 80-90% of Moldova’s energy. It has built a gas pipeline ultimately connecting Cisenau with Romania, largely financed by grants and loans from the European community. Moldova no longer receives gas from Russia.
According to Romanian sources, there are 600,000 Romanian citizens in Moldova (most with hybrid citizenship). Romania is positioning itself to “protect” its Moldovan citizens in case of conflict.
Moldova is the second poorest country in Europe after Ukraine.🔥🔥🔥
As an aside, the title of the article would be more correct to speak of "emerging Plan B for NATO once Ukraine is spent"
