Moldova has a "historic" opportunity to join the European Union and any projects to bring the country closer to the bloc must not replace the route to full membership, the prime minister said on Wednesday.
The country has pressed ahead with efforts to join the European Union amid fears that it could be drawn into the conflict in Ukraine.
"We welcome any mechanism for bringing us closer together, improving our cooperation, as long as this does not replace the path to membership," Natalia Gavrilita told a panel in Davos.
"We strongly believe that membership of the European Union is what distributes... peace, stability and value-based prosperity and we want to be part of the free world and this EU family," she added.
She said that Moldova had a "historic window of opportunity" to join the bloc and that candidate status must not only be given to Ukraine.
"Giving, at this historic moment of opportunity, candidate status only to Ukraine would have the consequences of creating a grey zone in Moldova," she said.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Andrius Sytas; Editing by Toby Chopra)
