Nicolae "Nicu" Popescu (born 25 April 1981) is a Moldovan diplomat, author, and politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova from 6 August 2021 until 26 January 2024 in the Gavrilita and then Recean cabinets.

[4] With Tiago Antunes, former state secretary for EU affairs in Portugal, he currently co-chairs an ECFR task force on 'lessons-learned' from the war in Ukraine consisting of several European foreign policy personalities.

In that post he dealt, besides his core foreign policy responsibilities, with reforms related to EU-Moldova visa-liberalization process and Moldova's accession to the European Common Aviation Area.

With Laurence Boone and Tiago Antunes, former state secretaries for EU affairs in France and Portugal respectively, he launched an ECFR task force on lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.

Several European foreign policy personalities have been involved in the work of the task force, among them Camille Grand, Dmytro Kuleba, Kostas Bakoyannis, Mark Leonard, Kajsa Ollongren, Jana Kobzova and others.

Among his key priorities were: accession to the EU, deepening the relationship with Romania, not least through the acceleration of joint infrastructure projects - bridges, energy interconnection and roaming liberalisation.

Additionally, he conducted 76 official visits, and contributed to the Moldova Support Platform, jointly led by France, Germany, and Romania, which brought together more than 50 states and organizations.

During his mandate he played a key role in enhancing security and defence cooperation with the EU, NATO and key member states, leading to the establishment of European Union Partnership Mission Moldova in May 2023, increased military support through the European Peace Facility, and increased assistance for the modernisation of Moldova's national army from multiple partners including Romania, the US, Germany, France, Spain and others.