Minister of Defence Jaromír Zůna visited Chișinău, where he met with his Moldovan counterpart, Minister Anatolie Nosatîi, during an official visit. They discussed options of further development of the cooperation between the two countries and current security matters. The Defence Ministers have honoured the memory of the fallen soldiers at the local Czechoslovak Legionaries Memorial.
In Chișinău, Minister Zůna was welcomed by his Moldovan counterpart during a ceremony with attendance of the honour guard, which was followed by the main part of the programme – the bilateral discussions of the Ministers and their delegations, where they focused on future development of mutual defence cooperation, experience sharing, and the options to support Moldova. The field of military-to-military cooperation was also debated as well as the broader security context within the region. “I regard the past cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Moldova as very positive and I believe that there is a lot to build on in the future,” Minister Zůna commented.
Among the countries outside NATO and the EU, Moldova belongs to Czechia’s important partners in the area of defence cooperation. During the last few years, the Czech Republic has focused primarily on the capability development of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova and on cultivating practical military cooperation. The members of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova participate in trainings delivered by the Czech-based British Military Advisory and Training Team on a sustained basis, especially by means of travelling teams delivering courses in Moldovan territory, but also in the form of training courses taking place in Training Command – Military Academy Vyškov. Apart from bilateral cooperation, the Czech Republic also supports the development of Moldovan defence capabilities via NATO instruments (Defence Capacity Building) and of the European Union, for example the European Peace Facility that is designed to strengthen the EU’s capabilities in the domain of conflict prevention, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, and fostering international security and stability.
The working meeting’s agenda involved the signing of the Bilateral Cooperation Plan for 2026 by the representatives of both parties, which follows up on the document of last year when this format of cooperation has been executed for the first time. The plan includes, for example, joint activities in the areas of military history, military geography, or regular security consultations.
Later, the two Ministers paid tribute to fallen legionaries at the Czechoslovak Legionaries Memorial at the Heroes’ Cemetery. The original memorial with a joint tomb was built in the 1920s at an initiative of Czechoslovak expats, serving as a war grave commemorating the Czechoslovak volunteers who died there in 1917 during a transfer from Romania to the Western Front. The memorial was taken down at the end of the 1950s and restored in 2023 thanks to Czech-Moldovan cooperation. The restoration took place within the cooperation of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Chișinău and the Czech MoD War Veterans and War Graves Department.
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