CHISINAU, June 20 (RIA Novosti) - Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said Saturday his country has its own way of development, rather comfortable and realizable, and is not going to join NATO.
"This means unification of the country through strategic partnership with Russia and on the basis of European democratic standards," Voronin told RIA Novosti.
"And the path of European integration that we have chosen differs much from known patterns. Because for us it is a way to receive the basic European freedoms, liberalized visa regime and free trade zone rather than pursuit of compulsory membership in the EU," he said.
"For us it is internal modernization of the whole set of legal, economic and social relations, without joining NATO or aggressive anti-Russian rhetoric," Voronin said.
The president said all sociological polls conducted lately in Moldova show that about 70% of the republic's residents do not oppose European integration with partnership with Russia.
"They have chosen both. Although regarding NATO their position is more peremptory. Most of our citizens do not want to join NATO," he said.
