BULBOACA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took his quest for more arms and support to a sprawling summit of some 50 European leaders in Moldova on Thursday, becoming the focal point of an event that seeks to quell regional conflicts and shore up unity in the face of Russia’s war.
The meeting of the pan-continental European Political Community, which embraces most European nations, gathered the heads of state and government from 47 countries but its attention was on the continent’s south and east a region pushed to a turning point in its relationship with Moscow because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
The 27-nation EU wants to use the summit to reach out to many Eastern European countries that spent decades either within the Soviet Union or under its immediate sphere of influence, and to bolster the continent’s unified response to Russian aggression.
The choice to hold the summit in Moldova, a former Soviet republic of around 2.6 million people, is seen as a message to the Kremlin both from the EU and the pro-Western Moldovan government, which had received the EU candidate status in June of last year.
As Zelenskyy addressed the gathered leaders at an opening ceremony, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte noted the significance of the summit’s location, only around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from conflict-hit Ukraine’s border.
“Our meeting today in Moldova speaks volumes. The country borders on Ukraine and here, the Russian threat is palpable,” Rutte said.