NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Tuesday avoided answering directly the question of whether Romania could intercept Russian drones crashing into Moldovan airspace, stating that this is a problem that falls rather within the competence of the Romanian authorities, the Moldovan portal NewsMaker reports.Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, ahead of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers on December 3 and 4, Rutte said that Moldova is very much on NATO's screen, and he is personally in "intense" contact with President Maia Sandu."I have the highest respect for Maia Sandu, the President of Moldova, and I'm in intense contact with her, and we will continue to do so. Obviously, the question on the drones is very much, I think, also a bilateral question, what Romania and Moldova could do here. So it's not up to me now to comment on that. I understand the question, but I would leave it with the Romanian authorities for the moment," said Mark Rutte, answering a question from a journalist from Moldova's broadcaster Jurnal TV."You can be assured that Moldova is very much on our NATO screen, and that we respect the country, respect the leadership, particularly when you have been seeing what happened during the elections, in the Euro referendum, and how much foreign influence there was, and then still that government being able to move forward with the population in a calm, measured way," the head of the North Atlantic Alliance said, according to NewsMaker.Since the beginning of Russia's large-scale onslaught on Ukraine, several stray drones launched by Russia against Ukrainian targets have been detected on Moldovan soil. (Photo:https://www.nato.int/)