Moldova’s defense spending will increase by 650 million lei ($141 mln), or approximately 68.2% in 2023.

This was announced by Anatolie Nosatîi, Moldova’s Minister of Defense, at the Moldova European Integration Forum.

The funds will be used to procure an air defense system.

“This amount will go to critical industries that have been identified in the context of reviewing strategic planning acts in the military field. Investments will focus on ensuring security, in particular air defense,” the Minister said.

He said that taking into account the proposals available today — so far it’s only about radar for missile defense — Moldova will be able to buy such a system only in a year and a half.

“Until we clarify our future: whether Moldova will remain a neutral state, or citizens will want to go the other way, and while we are neutral, we need to take care of the sector of our defense,” Nosatîi said.

At the same time, the Moldovan Minister of Defense noted that the normal defense budget should be 1-2% of GDP, even in countries such as Moldova.

Currently the budget of the Ministry of Defense is 1.56 billion lei, or 0.38% of GDP.

This year, the budget of the Ministry of Defense has already been increased by 14.5 million lei, more than half of the funds were spent on personnel.

The need to equip Moldova with an air defense system was discussed against the background of two cases of missiles falling on Moldovan territory, which occurred during a massive missile attack by Russia on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Recall that during a missile strike on October 31, a Russian missile was shot down over the territory of Moldova. Its fragments fell on the territory of the moldovian village of Naslavcha, Oknitsky district.

There were no injuries, but several private houses were damaged.