By Moldova Azi

20:28 GMT, May 30, 2008 "Moscow hopes that the Republic of Moldova will withdraw from GUAM at a certain moment and will never join NATO but will come closer to Russia,” the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots Alexei Ostrovski said in Chisinau on May 28.

"Moldova’s neutrality is an advantage first of all for Moldova and its people and I’m very glad that the Moldovan authorities understand that Moldova should strengthen the partnership relations with Russia. Therefore, we hope that Moldova will leave GUAM in a near future,” Ostrovski said.

According to Ostrovski, by adopting a firm decision on neutrality, the administration of Moldova, unlike that of Ukraine and Georgia, acts in the interests of its people. He said that Russia does not want the Moldovan soldiers to be used as pawns for satisfying the interests of Bush and his company in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots where the NATO troops are deployed,” the Romanian agency Newsin quoted Aleksei Ostrovski as saying.

Ostrovski said that the State Duma is very preoccupied with the settlement of the Transdniestrian dispute, this being the main subject of the discussions held by the Russian delegation in Chisinau and Tiraspol. He welcomed the resumption of the dialogue between the two banks of the Dniester and the meeting of Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov.

At the same time, the secretary general of GUAM Valery Cecelasvili was quoted by the Azeri press as saying that Moldova does not intend to leave GUAM in the near future.

The Moldovan Deputy Minister of Reintegration Ion Stavila said the same. “We do not intend to quit GUAM. On the contrary, we want to help intensify interaction in the framework of this organization. We, like all other member-states, are interested in attaining progress and having definite results. Perhaps, sometimes, we express dissatisfaction regarding lack of any real results, in particular, regarding implementation of definite projects.