Thank you for expressing your view.
The Transnistria region is part of the Republic of Moldova because Moldova is a unitary sovereign state. No country in the world recognizes the statehood or the independence of this secessionist region. On the contrary, we now have excellent co-operation with Ukrainian border police, the intelligence community, and colleagues working in law enforcement with a view to strengthening full control over the entire border between the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, which includes the 440 kilometres of the Transnistria region's border with Ukraine.
We have set up the so-called EUBAM, European Union Border Assistance Mission, in which I'm sure Canadian officers participate as well. Canada has provided assistance to Moldova on border security, border police, using former border guards. I would encourage more technical assistance being provided for equipment or technical materials, but also training of border police to ensure that the border between Moldova and Ukraine is secure and transparent.
You mentioned the trafficking of persons. I am the chair of the national committee on fighting trafficking of persons. That's a top priority for us. To prevent that we need to have full control of our borders. Targeted assistance for border control is extremely important.
The Transnistria region of Moldova benefits from every international agreement that the Moldovan government takes part in. For example, with EU integration, we have the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement and are visa free. Automatically these advantages and free trade are offered to the businesses in Transnistria. Now we have a situation where 78% of the businesses from the Transnistria region of Moldova export to the EU. It's soft power; it's opening the borders and making people and businesses in this region understand that they are better off in united Moldova, and that they will benefit economically and socially and democratically by being part of Moldova and by engaging Europe and the west as well.
You referred to hybrid warfare. Indeed, we have survived, and I think we have become stronger, at least mentally and in terms of maturity, by being fully aware of the fact that there is foreign interference in our elections, our media, our social media, and other areas as well. We are ready to engage with other western colleagues and to share the lessons learned because, unfortunately, we have been exposed to that. At this moment, we also need support to be able to respond to the new challenges of cybersecurity and cyber-warfare because this requires some new technologies as well.