Moldova could become part of Romania within the next five-year period, Romania’s ex-president Traian Basescu told a group of supporters on Wednesday.

“This project is not for the long haul, it is for the next four or five years, but it needs to be well organized, well explained and well financed,” Basescu said when meeting with members of the Popular Movement party’s youth school in Mamaia.

He said that the “valuable” move would not bring financial ruin to Romania as the EU could largely foot the bill.

“What really matters is that we have the political will on both sides of the Prut River to make this project happening,” Basescu added.

He also said that Transnistria can’t be part of the project because “it is not Romanian territory.”

“We, who want Moldova to unite with Romania, realize full well that Transnistria is out of the picture because it has never been Romanian territory.”

“It was just an “administrative maneuver” of the Khruschev era when Transnistria was declared part of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and territories of southern Moldavia were handed over to Ukraine,” Traian Basascu emphasized.