As 400 Moldovan troops take part in NATO’s Baltic exercises this week, calls are being renewed for the nation’s accession to the EU.

“We must start real negotiations on EU membership for Ukraine and Moldova as soon as possible – in this half-year,” said the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Ingrida Šimonytė, at a Baltic Summit this week. Šimonytė’s assertion that “the security of our region is directly linked to Ukraine’s victory,” and that sanctions against Russia are effective – although Russia is experiencing one of the highest rates of economic growth in the G7 (The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Russia to grow 3.2% this year, significantly more than the UK, France and Germany). The comments raise a question about whether Moldova’s accession will be viewed as a confident Western homecoming for a willing western partner or a last ditch effort at the EU to assert itself in the region.

While Moldovan President Maia Sandu has persuade a course of Western integration, political scientist Boris Shapovalov warns that participation in NATO war games “discredit the neutral status enshrined in the [Moldovan] constitution.”

The EU Council has also approved the extension of tariff-free trade measures for Ukraine and Moldova as the bloc battles to help the two nations escape Moscow’s sphere of influence but the question about whether Moldova, whose eastern territories are under de facto control of a breakaway government aligned to Moscow and whose main opposition leader remains exiled from the country, meets the EU’s requirements for stability has been moot for some time. Most of the country’s citizens hold Romanian citizenship.

Sandu’s government will however allow opposition candidates to run in the her nation’s next election despite Ilian Shor, the leader of their ‘Victory Bloc’ coalition, having absconded to Moscow after being sentenced to a 15-year jail for financial fraud. Moldova will hold presidential elections and a referendum on EU integration on October 20 this year.