From Cyber Resilience to Digital Trust: Self-Sovereign Identity as an Instrument of Cyber Diplomacy Between Romania and the Republic of Moldova

Hybrid threats on NATO's Eastern Flank increasingly target not only digital infrastructure but also trust in identities, institutions and information.This article examines how digital trust can strengthen cybersecurity cooperation and cyber diplomacy between Romania and the Republic of Moldova.While existing bilateral, regional and European mechanisms provide a strong institutional basis for cooperation, an operational gap remains in verifying identities, institutional roles, authorisations and digital communications across borders.Building on the RoDID project, the article proposes a Digital Trust Corridor based on Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), Verifiable Credentials (VCs), trusted issuer registries and secure peer-to-peer communication.It further introduces Verifiable Confidence-Building Measures (VCBMs) as technical mechanisms for translating politically established trust into verifiable digital interactions.The article argues that Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) cannot solve geopolitical attribution, but can reduce uncertainty regarding legitimate actors, institutional authority and communication provenance, thereby complementing existing cyberdiplomacy instruments