World Bulletin / News Desk

US Senator John McCain has called on the European Union to open its doors to Moldova during a speech in the Moldovan capital Chisinau on Thursday.

Having already called for the state to be accepted into NATO alongside Georgia to protect them from Russian expansion plans, McCain reiterated these calls in his visit to students at the Academy for Economic Studies.

After the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea by Russia, calls to hold a referendum in the pro-Russian breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniester have made Moldovans as nervous as Ukrainians.

Russia already maintains around 1,400 troops in Transdniester, which declared its independence in 1990 but is yet to be recognized by the international community.