IRAQ DEPLOYMENT REQUIREMENTS: MOLDOVA

C O N F I D E N T I A L CHISINAU 001331

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR PM AND EUR/UMB

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2017
TAGS: MARR MOPS PREL IZ MD
SUBJECT: IRAQ DEPLOYMENT REQUIREMENTS: MOLDOVA

REF: STATE 150164

Classified By: Ambassador Michael D. Kirby for reasons 1.4(b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Because of its constitutional neutrality,
Moldova sends its officers and soldiers abroad only to
conduct peacekeeping and humanitarian operations under a
specific mandate, such as UN or OSCE, and for a specific
purpose. For Iraq, the Moldovan soldiers officially deploy
at the request of the Iraqi government under a United Nations
Chapter VII mandate. They conduct explosive ordnance
disposal (EOD) operations in support of humanitarian
assistance and nation rebuilding operations in Iraq. End
Summary.

Mandate Approval Process
--------------


2. (C) Each Moldovan contingent that serves in Iraq must be
approved by the Parliament. The U.S. Ambassador sends a
letter of request for forces to the President of Moldova.
The President's office sends the request to the Ministry of
Defense for action. The Ministry of Defense sends back its
recommendations to the President's Supreme Security Council.
The council reviews the recommendations and then sends it to
the Parliament for approval. Once the Parliament approves
the contingent, the action is sent back to the executive
branch for final actions and is published as a government
order. This process is very time-consuming, normally taking
approximately six months from receipt of initial request
until parliamentary approval. In a recent meeting, President
Voronin underlined that he personally cannot make this
decision, as it requires Parliamentary approval.

Scenarios
--------------


3. (C) All four scenarios would require that the Moldovan
Parliament approve committing Moldovan military forces to
Iraq. Additionally, for financial reasons, Moldova would
have to continue to attach its forces to U.S. forces for all
logistical support, but commit them under some type of
international mechanism. Post expects that the six month or
more approval process would continue to apply for each future
Moldovan contingent to Iraq under any type of new agreement.
The Parliamentary Speaker showed interest in our suggestion
that the Parliament save time by approving two consecutive
six-month mandates simultaneously, but this has not yet been
implemented.

Domestic Political Challenges
--------------


4. (C) The Moldovan government watches the situation in Iraq
and the actions of the other coalition partners very closely.
Additionally, the government treads very carefully around
the topic of supporting the U.S. with military forces in
light of the tremendous pressure it receives from Russia.
Post believes that some type of UN Security Council
Resolution authorizing military action under Chapter VII
would facilitate future Moldovan participation in Iraq in

2009. The committee in Parliament that initially discusses
every contingent is the Committee for National Security,
Defense and Public Order. That committee's pro-Russia
members would resist sending Moldovan soldiers to Iraq to
conduct missions in support of the U.S. A UN request for
humanitarian/nation-building assistance from countries such
as Moldova would make the deployment of future Moldovan
contingents more palatable domestically.
KIRBY