this is bbc news, the headlines: the united states has announced a new package of military aid to ukraine worth $1 billion — and urged allies to provide more weapons to help kyiv. the aid includes artillery, ammunition and advanced rocket systems. new pledges have also come from nato members meeting in brussels. police in brazil searching for the bodies of two men, a britishjournalist dom phillips and a brazilian expert on indigenous people, bruno pereira, have found human remains. detectives in the city of manaus, in the amazon, said a suspect has confessed to killing the two men. the us central bank has announced its biggest rise in interest rates since 1994. the three—quarters of a percentage point increase is an attempt by the federal reserve to combat surging inflation.

rising prices are continuing to hit president biden�*s poll ratings. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. russia's invasion of ukraine has raised anxiety levels across eastern europe, nowhere more so than moldova. this former outpost of the soviet empire shares a border with ukraine. it also hosts a pro—moscow breakaway territory. it is poor, beset with corruption, and it could ultimately be in vladimir putin's sights. my guest is nicu popescu, moldova's foreign minister and deputy pm. how can moldova best protect itself?

nicu popescu, in chisinau, welcome to hardtalk. it's good talking to you, stephen, hello. it's a pleasure to have you on the show. now, mr deputy prime minister, you've had more than 100 days of observing vladimir putin's invasion strategy in ukraine. right now, do you fear that putin represents a threat to moldova, too? i think this war is making every single person living on the european continent not only feel the insecurity generated by this war, generated by this blatant breach of international law.

and of course we, as all other people living on the european continent, feel the impact of this insecurity. of course, given our geography, our history, this insecurity in moldova is indeed felt quite strongly. at the same time, we are, of course, ready for all possible developments, for all possible contingencies. but in our assessment — and this assessment is shared by our partners throughout the european union and the united states and canada — is that, at this stage, there is no imminent or immediate military threat to moldova. we feel the impact of this war in multiple ways, but when it comes to our military security, at this stage, the situation remains calm. yeah, you phrased that very carefully — "no imminent or immediate threat," you said. but i'm sure you, just like me, heard vladimir putin's words

the other day, where he appeared to be comparing himself to peter the great — of course, once russia's imperial leader — and he said, "it is also our destiny, like his, peter the great, to return what is russia's and strengthen our nation." did you find that chilling, thinking about the longer term and your security with regard to russia? moldova belongs to the citizens of moldova. we have a very strong mandate to do what we do. very strong support, absolute support for our independence. and that's what we plan to do. /of course, we have seen statements coming from the russian federation about our region, about our country, which were not always framed in the best positive manner. but we don't take this statement that you just evoked in any way being attributable to the republic of moldova. we're an independent...

but i guess, if i may, here's the question — you are a neutral country, you know, you're not in nato. you've chosen very deliberately to pursue a neutral path. you cannot be neutral, can you, in the current circumstances? the constitution of moldova was adopted in 1994, and according to that constitution, moldova has been a neutral state since 1994. so, this is the framework in which all moldovan governments have been implementing our security policies, defence policies. so, this is what we work with. at the same time, we're very clear about the fact that our neutrality does not mean indifference to breaches of international law. and from the first hours of the outbreak of the war, we have very clearly condemned the russian aggression against ukraine. our neutrality does not mean demilitarisation. so, we're speaking very clearly about our need to strengthen our security and defence capacity to defend our neutrality. and our neutrality does

not mean self—isolation in international relations. we have very good partnerships in the security and defence sphere with partners that support moldova, and we've always been very clear and transparent about this... right, but in terms of defending yourselves and your country's stability, you've got a big problem, and that is a swathe of your territory is in the hands of a breakaway group who are loyal to moscow. they call their territory transnistria. between 1,500—2,000 russian troops are permanently stationed in that territory. that is an in—built instability for you, isn't it? we do have a separatist conflict for, roughly, 30 years. there is indeed a russian illegal military presence on the territory, and we have always insisted on the fact that russia should withdraw its troops from our territory. at the same time, the way we have structured and have

developed our approach to conflict resolution in the transnistrian region and in our attempts to persuade russia to withdraw its troops, our approach has always been based on dialogue and diplomacy. we are talking to the de facto authorities of the transnistrian region about conflict settlement. we have a dialogue that, more or less, is allowing us to keep stability and peace on the entire territory of moldova, which includes the transnistrian region. we've also been very clear about... but you know much better than i do that, actually, in april there was instability, there was violence. there were grenade attacks on buildings in the transnistrian de facto capital. you, at the time, talked about worrying signs. you suggested that perhaps some outside actors were involved. now you've had time to reflect on it, what do you think was going on and who was responsible?

so, there were indeed several explosions in the tra nsnistrian region. of course, the situation in the region, as a whole — again, on the entire continent — is tense. of course, these tensions are felt in moldova, in the transnistrian region of moldova. now, when it comes to these explosions, they have not had, you know, any type of continuity. there were several of them. there were no victims. we are in touch with the de facto transnistrian authorities on a regular basis. i have a colleague in the government, the deputy prime minister for integration, who speaks regularly, meets regularly with our counterparts in the transnistrian region. and there's a desire to keep peace here. when it comes to assessing what happens in transnistria, of course, our law enforcement agencies do not have the capacity to do the full forensic analysis of what happens on the territory not controlled by the government in chisinau. we have our own assessments. but what we said is that we do see...

the thing is... yes? well, you're trying to assess a situation which looks to some people, worryingly, like there's a parallel with ukraine, in that russia is suggesting that there are real problems of discrimination and persecution of russians and russian speakers in your country. to quote a june 6th statement from the russian foreign ministry, "with regret," they say, "we have to state that russian compatriots living in moldova and russian speaking people, in general, are often experiencing difficulties in guaranteeing their rights inside moldova." that is reminiscent to many of what the russians say about what's happened to the russian—speaking population in the donbas, for example. that is clearly not the case. all citizens of moldova, all residents of moldova — including speakers who have russian or ukrainian, or gagauz or bulgarian as their mother tongue — have their rights respected.

that's very clear, and what's also felt by our citizens, irrespective of what their native language is. so, the statements of the russian foreign ministry are manifestly untrue. we've been... have you spoken to your counterpart — lavrov, sergei lavrov — about this? the last time we spoke with sergei lavrov was in mid—november, when i had a bilateral visit to moscow. since then, we have not talked about that. but our colleagues at the level of our ambassador in moscow and the russian ambassador in chisinau, we do pass on messages to the russian federation, and vice versa. and we have indeed very clearly stated our disagreement with this assessment, and we find it untrue and unconstructive, and unuseful. right, but like i say, the tensions are clearly there, and your biggest problem of all, maybe, is that you've got a very feeble, a very weak military. your military spending is — if i may say so — in regional terms, very, very low. you only have about 5,000 full—time soldiers, hardly any

more than they have in transnistria. and it's obvious that if the russians were, at some point in the future, to launch an attack inside your territory, you would have no capacity at all. unlike the ukrainians, you would have no capacity, really, to defy them and resist them. so, your weakness is there for all to see. i will only agree with you in the fact that for almost 30 years, moldova's defence sector has not been very well ta ken care of. it has not... not enough things have been done to modernise and equip our military. at the same time, of course, given the new regional context, with threats, the russian aggression against ukraine, we are in the process of revising and accelerating our modernisation of our military. at the same time, we're not just looking at the numbers. what is very clear is, virtually, all moldovan citizens want to live in an independent country, in a sovereign country,

in a european country. and i would notjust count military. what is clear is, our society is firmly committed, and, of course, our military is always ready to do what they swear to do, and that is to defend moldova. and we are looking into the best ways to modernise and give everyone the capacity to ensure that moldova stays sovereign, independent and european. we'll get to modernisation and your relationship with nato ina minute. butjust one more question on your reading of russia's intentions. i'm sure you saw the statement from general rustam minnekayev, a senior russian general, who talked about the russian long—term strategy of occupying a huge area of southern ukraine, taking 0desa and, as he put it, opening up an access route to transnistria. now, if all of that were to happen, moldova's territorial integrity would be destroyed.

and i'm just wondering, when you tell me that your assessment is, for the moment, you're safe, how long you think you're safe for? we cannot predict how this situation will evolve. at the same time, we are obliged as a government to be preparing for the full spectrum of threats and scenarios, including negative military scenarios. and we have been doing that since november. so, from before the war, we started preparing for the full spectrum of threats. this is what we're doing. so now we're not in a position to allocate different probabilities to this or that scenario. it's very clear that the situation in the region is dangerous. it's very clear that the russian aggression against ukraine is a major problem for all the countries on the european continent. it's also a problem for moldova. breaches of international law like that are a major problem, and what we have to do, without being able to predict how things will evolve is to prepare for the full spectrum of contingencies, and this is what we are doing.

at the same time, i cannot predict what will happen in the future. no, well, none of us can. but ijust wonder if it's a sign of your nervousness that you, as a government and as a judicial authority, have arrested former president, former leader of the pro—russian party, igor dodon, who very recently was your president, but now, it seems, is under suspicion of widespread corruption and even some reports suggest treason as well. he says it's absolutely untrue and that this is all politics. are you moving against him because he's pro—russian? well, that's the justice system, and that's an ongoing investigation on which, of course, i cannot comment. at the same time, three years ago, roughly, these days, some videos were put on youtube showing former president dodon taking a bag from an oligarch.

and they talk about the fact that in this bag there is cash for the party. so there are serious suspicions and allegations of significant corruption in which former president dodon engaged. and this is normalfor any country with a functional justice system to investigate these kinds of things. and you and our bbc watchers can all check this on youtube, this is easily available. and the right thing to do with such allegations is for them to be investigated. and these things are completely unrelated to the geopolitical and security context. well, you're right, it has to be tested in a court. and of course, he says, dodon says that this is a complete fabrication. i just wonder whether you worry, again, about the rising tension with moscow, because mr peskov, putin's spokesman, and others have talked about the way they're watching this case, and they clearly feel that there's rising anti—russian sentiment in your country.

this case is unrelated to the regional context, the geopolitical context, our society wants the political class to be cleaner. this government, president maia sandu and this government were elected to clean up corruption, to improve governance, to reform the justice system, and a true clean—up of the of corruption in any country starts from decisive action against corrupt politicians. and this is what is happening, this is what should happen, and it is unrelated to foreign policy. now, yes, russia is watching, ukraine is watching, romania is watching. everyone are welcome to watch our domestic processes, our domestic politics, ourjustice system. we are also watching the politics and judiciary processes in other countries. at the same time, this is our business. we are an independent country, and our society wants our politics to be clean. i'll tell you what else moscow is watching, and that's the relationship you're

developing with nato. as you've said to me, constitutionally, you're neutral, and that's not going to change any time soon. but the british foreign secretary said just a few weeks ago that moldova should be, quote, "equipped to nato�*s standard and the uk, for one, intends to help moldova do that." we've also got the americans talking about helping the moldovan army become more capable, more effective. are you, in a sense, trying to enter a partnership with nato by the back door? we have a strong, and good and very transparent partnership with nato. we have had a so—called individual partnership action plan renewed every two years since 2006. all the parameters and the framework of our cooperation with nato is very transparent, all of it is found online, including our cooperation with nato at this stage.

so yes, we do cooperate with nato, we do cooperate with european union, with eu member states, with our neighbours. we participate in un peacekeeping missions. so we do a lot to be present in international cooperative efforts to ensure security. right, but this is delicate. all of this is transparent. yeah, this is very delicate for you, isn't it? the latest polling on nato and your country's relationship with it from within inside your own country suggest that three quarters of moldovans do not support the idea of moldova's membership in nato. you have to tread very carefully here. you are right about our public opinion. that indeed is the case. at the same time, as i said, moldova has had a very good cooperation with nato in partnership, which is transparent, that helped moldova in multiple ways, and our society knows that. so when you quote such opinion polls, the answers are related to nato accession prospects.

but at the same time, our cooperation with nato, we also have a strong bilateral defence cooperation with the united states that is also supported widely by our population. and as i said, our neutrality does not mean self—isolation. 0ur neutrality means that we still need a functional, and strong and modern security and defence sector, and we are doing it through dialogue and through partnership with our partners. and all of that is very transparent, and all of that is widely supported by our society. it's notjust about nato, it's about the eu, cos in the end, moldova has to make choices about how it orientates its strategy going forward. are you going to look to brussels, or are you going to look more to the regional space that putin wants to create, if you want to call it that, a greater russia? you, it seems, are intent onjoining the eu, and in the next few weeks, the eu is going to give you a broad principle decision about whether they're interested in having

you as a member state. are you sure, in the current climate, that's a wise move? what a wise move in a democracy is to do what the people want and to modernise the country and our society for many decades already, want us to be in the european union, and that's what we're doing. for example, the ministry that i have the honour of representing here is called the ministry of foreign affairs and european integration, and it has been having this name for over 15 years. that's a widely supported foreign policy priority. 0ur society and, of course, my government is an expression of that, is that we are a european country with a european language, our language is romanian, it's already an official language of the eu, we have a european history. our economy is deeply integrated with that of the european union, and we want to bring our country into the european union. this is what we're doing.

we just applied on the 3rd of march for eu membership, and in the next days and weeks, we are looking forward to making several significant steps, receiving an eu accession perspective and positioning ourselves to a situation where we soon would become a potential candidate country for eu membership. right, but isn't that a fantasy, given the levels of corruption in your country, given the failings of your judicial system, and given the terrible situation of your economy and the fact that you are so much poorer than the average eu standard of living? it's going to be decades, it's almost unimaginable to imagine a scenario where moldova meets the threshold for membership. well, it's imaginable because multiple, you know, about two dozen, not dozen, but around 20 members — countries of the european continent did that before us.

the european communities started with the schuman declaration in 1950, right? so that was five years after the second world war, at a time when europe was destroyed, democracies were far from being consolidated. so, the route we are taking has been taken before by italy, by germany, by spain, by portugal, by greece, by romania, by hungary, by poland... and you know as well as i do, the political perspective has changed since then. and if you look at what the french government, led by emmanuel macron, is saying, look at what the dutch government is saying. there is no appetite for a further expansion to include countries like moldova. well, i would not say that, of course, in a few days, in a couple of weeks, we'll see the exact line and signal that will come from the eu member states regarding our european aspirations. at the same time, the signals we get is that

all the countries throughout the eu understand we're a european country, and they take our aspirations tojoin the eu as being legitimate, fair, correct, and now the eu, and the european commission and the eu member states are doing their best to help us and we are doing that together. right, but it comes back to where we began, your relationship with russia. the fact is you have a chunk of your territory that is de facto controlled by pro—moscow forces. you're still entirely dependent on russia for your gas supplies and most of your electricity. there are reasons to believe that, in the end, you need a relationship with moscow as much as you need a relationship with brussels. and in that context, i'm struggling to see why the eu would want to take moldova on right now. it's because the way of assessing our european prospects is notjust by taking snapshots, and you are talking to our degree of corruption. but let me give you a few other things.

if you look at things into in a perspective and in a dynamic. so just in the last few weeks, we have been upgraded in the moneyval system when it comes to our systems in place, when it comes to combating money laundering, we've improved, as we speak, in recent weeks, wejumped 49 places on the reporters without borders freedom of the media index. we've been moving very fast to reform ourjustice system. we've adopted pre—vetting, our economy is very connected to that of the eu. some two thirds of our exports go to the eu market. we are talking as we speak with investors about actually developing our infrastructure, modernising railways, building bridges, building windmills and renewable power plants and photovoltaics. so as we speak, there is a very positive dynamic, despite the stress that affects everyone on the european continent. just a few days ago, i went on my — you mentioned

president macron, and president macron is visiting kitchener these days. i was on my bilateral visit to meet with the french foreign minister a few days ago. but among these things, we're also talking concrete projects, concrete investments. there are investors willing to come and invest in moldova because they see moldova being on the right path, improving our governance. and it's a good moment to come into moldova because we have a good future in the eu. well, on that note, deputy prime minister, we must leave it. but i thank you very much indeed forjoining me on hardtalk, thank you. thank you. well, we're certainly turning up the heat

over the next couple of days. for southern parts of the uk, this is going to be a short—lived heatwave. and this is the peak — by friday, london and the south—east up to around 33, perhaps even 34 degrees. look at the average — so we're significantly higher compared to what we would normally see this time of the year. not unprecedented — the record is actually a little above 35 degrees. so we're not beating any records, but it's not that far away if you think about it. now, this is what's happening on the satellite picture. here's the heat coming in from the south. we've got cooler air in the north atlantic. that cooler air will eventually win. i think by the time we get to saturday into sunday, things will start cooling off and storms will come our way as well, but not in the short term. this is what it looks like thursday morning — clear skies across england and wales, a bit more cloud in the north—west here with these atlantic weather systems just brushing the north—west of the british isles, and bits and pieces of rain. some of the showers could turn a little heavy in the western isles, perhaps

the north of northern ireland through the day. there's another weather front heading our way, but that's to come thursday night. but look at the temperatures — 28 in london, widely mid—20s into yorkshire, for example. we could actually hit 30 degrees on thursday. now, here's a reminder of the pollen levels — if you've been struggling with your nose and itchy eyes, the pollen levels are very high. and also, it's worth mentioning the uv levels — we are approaching the longest day of the year, the sun's high in the sky. you know, make sure you're very careful if you're out for any lengthy period of time in that sunshine. so, here's a look at the weather for friday. this is actually going to be the peak of the heat, so these south—south—westerly winds draw up that hot air from the south, 33 or 34 degrees, all the hot air coming in from france. the north—west of the country, much fresher here — this is that cooler atlantic air already starting to spread in. 17 degrees in glasgow. and this is what happens during the course of saturday —

so that cooler atlantic air wrapping around this low pressure spreads across the country, here's the cold front. the heat is pushed to the south, back into france, and we get into this area of storminess. so, come the weekend, whether you like it or not, after a hot and sunny friday, it's all going to go "bang".

this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the united states sends a further $1 billion worth of military aid to ukraine, and re—affirms its commitment to stand by kyiv. we are going to continue to work hard, to give ukraine as much capability as we can as fast as we can, to make sure ukraine can be successful. police searching the amazon for two missing men say they've found human remains and made an arrest. more than a million children in afghanistan are facing malnutrition as the country struggles with an economic crisis. we hear from families desperately trying to survive.