Moldova’s pro-European government intends to press for changes in legislation to allow the production of weapons for its own defense, Parliament Chairman Igor Grosu, the country’s No. 2 official, said on Friday at a two-day international security forum in Chisinau. The changes are needed to proceed with the manufacture of dual-purpose weapons, like drones, which Grosu said the country needs for national security, emergencies and agriculture. Grosu, head of President Maia Sandu’s Action and Solidarity Party, which holds a parliamentary majority, dismissed any suggestion the weapons might be meant for use by Ukraine. “Of course not! Why would we?” he told reporters. “We would produce them for ourselves.”
The announcement follows rumors that drone production for Ukraine had been discussed in parliament’s closed-door session. On October 8, lawmakers met behind closed doors, without phones or recording devices and with printed annexes collected and destroyed afterward, to examine changes to the size of the National Army, according to Moldovan outlet moldovalive.md. Grosu’s forum remarks appear aimed at settling both the rumors and the question of intent: domestic production, domestic use.
The context is the airspace. Grosu told the forum that 88 violations of Moldova’s airspace have been recorded since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, with increasing numbers of drones and missiles believed by authorities to be Russian intruding in recent weeks and debris crashing on Moldovan territory. “With such figures, people are asking a simple question: Can our state defend us?” he said. He was blunt about the deficit: Moldova cannot build air defense overnight and cannot in four years make up for 30 years of failing to finance its defense. Protecting the airspace requires radar, equipment, trained personnel, communications, infrastructure and procedures.
Sandu, speaking at the forum on Thursday, called Moldova’s position in the region “vulnerable” and said domestic defense production was a key part of future defense planning, with changes to legislation to be submitted to parliament soon. Her administration wants Moldova to join the European Union by 2030 and has been fiercely critical of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move carries weight beyond drones. Moldova is constitutionally neutral, and domestic arms production would test how that neutrality is interpreted as the country deepens EU integration; it also lands against the unresolved presence of Russian troops in the breakaway Transnistria region. Nothing has been drafted yet, so the story’s next milestone is the actual legislation reaching parliament, where Sandu’s majority makes passage likely.